Dragonflies in the mist
by Ben Myatt
Summary: Davis is a Medical Helicoptor pilot in the war torn country of Rosastan, when a familiar pair of journalists turn up to document events. one of them is Davis's childhood friend TK. the other is the girl he never told he loved... COMPLETED!
1. Graduation

Disclaimer: ALL YOUR Digimon ARE BELONG TO ME!

…Or not.

Dragonflies in the Mist.

By Ben Myatt.

*******************

Chapter 1:

Graduation.

*********

Daisuke 'Davis' Motomiya looked at the clothing in front of him with a barely concealed expression of disgust.

"Remind me again," he said in a slightly injured voice "What on earth possessed the committee to choose Burgundy?"

Takeru 'TK' Takaishi grinned at his friend.

"You tell us. You were on the committee."

Davis glanced around with on exaggeratedly secretive look on his face.

"I'll confess, guys." He said quietly, "I skipped all of the committee meetings. I just thought it would look good on the resume."

Ken and TK glanced at each other, and then burst into helpless laughter. Davis grinned. 

"Well, I suppose there's no helping it. Shall we, Gentlemen?"

Quickly the three Digidestined changed into the robes. Davis glanced in the mirror once, and shuddered.

"I look like a carpet."

"That's fitting." Ken said, "The rest of us have been walking all over you for years."

Davis laughed. Then the three of them stood in silence, looking at their reflections.

"Well, we made it."

"Yeah." 

"The End of high school."

"No shit."

Davis grinned. 

"Lets get drunk."

"_After_ the ceremony, Motomiya."

"Aw, no-one lets me have any fun."

=============================================================

In the girls changing room, a similar scene was taking place.

"I'm telling you Kari, Burgundy was definitely the right choice."

"I never had any doubts, Yolei."

The purple-haired girl grinned, and held her robes up against her body too look in the mirror.

"Didn't Davis help choose these?"

Kari laughed.

"He never turned up to the meetings. I don't think they were quite his thing."

"Figures."

"Uh-huh. He's a bit of a moron at times."

Yolei gave her friend a look, and smiled to herself. The pair of them looked in the mirror.

"Well, we made it."

"Yeah."

"Just a coupla hours to go."

"Yup."

"The guys are gonna get completely wasted, you know that."

Kari gave a long-suffering sigh.

"Yup."

=============================================================

Davis felt a Jab in his ribs, and came back to attention to watch the principal of the school talking.

"Don't fall asleep again." Kari hissed out of the side of her mouth.

"I wasn't asleep." Davis said back. "I was just resting my eyes."

"For ten minutes?"

"They need a lot of rest."

She cocked an eyebrow, but said nothing. Davis snuck a quick glance at her, and marvelled at how she made the god-awful robes they were wearing actually look good. Her light brown hair fell against her shoulders, a golden cascade in the sunny afternoon.

"Stop that, and pay attention." Kari said, without even looking at him.

"How do you do that?" he said, his eyes returning to the principal.

"Magic." She grinned.

The principal continued to blather on, and then in a polite way, told them they were adrift in the world and to get the hell out of his school.

=============================================================

The bar was packed. It wasn't as if it'd been entirely unexpected, but Davis hand thought that there would be quite this many people packed into Liam Dillon's small tavern. The Digidestined made their way to their usual corner table, and sat down.

"Okay." Davis said. "Here is my final statement as supposed leader of the Digidestined, as in, remained leader only at everyone else's sufferance."

"Amen." TK said.

"Thankyou. It has come to my attention that we've just graduated from high school." He glanced at Cody. "Well, most of us."

"Thankyou."

"Welcome. Anyways, I just wanted to say…" he smiled slightly. "I love you guys. You're my second family, and no matter where we go, I wont forget you." 

He saw the small smiles on their faces, and placed some money on the table. 

"But that's enough of that. First rounds on me. Lets get wasted." 

"Our leader speaks wisely indeed." Ken said.

"Of course I do. Everything I say is wise." 

"I hadn't noticed that."  
  


"You just weren't listening."

=============================================================

TK was lying face down against the bar. Davis sat next to him, grinning slightly.

"You know, you really shouldn't drink that much."

"I didn't!"

"Oh Really?" Davis said, his voice holding whole volumes of sarcasm.

"Oh, go to hell."

"Been. Didn't like the food."

He glanced around. Kari was sitting in the corner, a glass of Malibu and coke in her hands. Davis smiled, and got up, patting the blonde man on the shoulder. TK raised a hand in acknowledgement, not daring himself to speak. Or open his mouth.

Davis moved over to the brown-haired girl, his drink in his hand. He sat down next to her, and smiled.

"You drunk?" she asked.

"No. But I haven't been trying."

Kari cast an eye at TK.

"But he has?"

"Oh, yeah."

They sat in a companionable silence for a couple of moments.

"Where are you headed after this?" Kari asked.

Davis shrugged.

"I've had a couple of offers from football clubs, but…"

"But?"

"I don't really want to go into pro football just yet."

She gave him a shocked look.

"Are you kidding me? You play football in your sleep, from what I've heard." 

He laughed.

"Maybe, but I'm not ready to make a career out of it. I've been offered another rather intriguing prospect, though."

"Oh?"

"I'm not going to tell you."

"Davis!"

"Hey, its not my idea. It might fall through, so the people who organise it want it kept quiet for the moment." He shrugged. "Bureaucrats, you know."

She glared at him, obviously not satisfied with the answer. He coughed slightly, and ignored her.

"So where are you going?"

She looked off a bit. 

"I'm going to college… to do a photojournalism course… With TK."

Davis gave a slight grin, even as he felt like he was being shot down in flames. 

"Oh?"

"Oh no, its nothing like that!"

The flames went out.

"Did I say a word?"

"You didn't have to. That little smirk said it all."

"Oh, well, never mind then."

He leaned back against the cushions of the wall-seat. 

"Is there anyone you do…?"

he left the question hanging in the air and studied her out of the corner of his eye, looking for discernible reaction. She shook her head.

The flames re-ignited again.

"No. not at the moment. Maybe I'll meet someone in college."

"Maybe."

He glanced at his watch.

"Well, I suppose its time for me to get home. I've got an early start in the morning."

"Yeah… see you Davis."

He didn't trust himself to say anything more as her stood and headed for the door, his heart feeling like a leaden lump in his throat.

=============================================================

"So what made you decide to accept this job with us, Mr Motomiya?" the middle aged man said.

"Well, I thought it would be a good way to travel the world, gain valuable experience in the field, and learn a new skill."

"That's good. Now what's the real reason."

Davis thought for a couple of seconds.

"I figured chicks would dig it."

The interviewer nodded.

"Yup, that works for me." He grinned. "That's one thing you'll need. We tend to appreciate people with a decent sense of humour in this line of work. I'll have to put you down for training, obviously."

"Yeah."

"Even better. We like to get our hands on people before the commercial industry corrupts them."

He leaned back.

"I have to tell you Mr Motomiya…"

"Davis."

"I have to tell you, Davis, that this isn't an easy job. You're gonna be working in some of the hottest trouble zones in the world, and it isn't going to be a position where you can fight you're way around."

Davis smiled slightly.

"I didn't sign up to fight."

"Good, because the job is helping people."

"So I figured. I've had enough fighting in my life. I figure that piloting a medical emergency helicopter is the best way to move away from that."

"You could be right. Of course, having the fabled luck of the Digidestined could be a great asset as well."

The interviewer stood, and held out his hand. Davis also stood, and shook the offered palm.

"Welcome to the Independent Emergency Medical Pilot Team, Davis."

"Isn't that a little cumbersome?"

"Yes. That's why we just call it 'Air relief.'"

"Okay then. Glad to be aboard." He paused. "Do I salute?"

"Only if you want the entire team to shoot you."

"Then I wont bother."

=============================================================

He stared at the phone as if it were a snake. Daring himself to be courageous, he reached forward – and halted.

He felt the touch of cowardice creep into his soul, holding his hand still.

"You're not going to call her, are you?"

He jumped, as he heard Jun behind him. He glanced over his shoulder at her serious face.

"I don't know."

"You'll never find out if you don't."

"I know."

He let his hand drop to his side.

"Maybe I don't want to find out. I can't even tell myself."

She smiled slightly.

"Then don't call. Keep the friendship. Just keep it the way it is."

He nodded slightly.

"You're probably right."

He looked away.

"I've… gotta go. I've got a plane to catch."

She stepped forward, and hugged him.

"You be careful, okay?"

"Me? Don't be silly."

She laughed, and punched him lightly in the shoulder.

"Try not to get yourself killed."

"Well, that'll be fun too."

He picked up the backpack that held the last of his gear, and headed for the door.

"See ya later, sis."

"Bye, Davis. Don't forget to call."

"I wont."

=============================================================

(A/N) 

I know, its not so much a chapter as an extended Introduction. Don't worry, the chapters will probably get longer.

This is NOT going to be another "The Remains Of Twilight." It's not going to involve Davis running around blowing the hell out of everything. It's going to be a little different, and I'm not ALL that sure where I'm going with it, so just bear with me. 

Like I said, I know the chapter is short, but changing from a Fantasy story to something fairly realistic involves a fairly large shift in my mentality, so it's difficult to write something like this at the moment.

Next chapter soon!

-Ben.


	2. Rosastan

Chapter 2:

Rosastan.

********

(3 years later.)

Danny Brown looked out of the window at the rain hitting the dense foliage of the jungle, and swore.

"Very nice." Davis said.

"Oh, gimme a break. You don't like being stuck in here anymore than I do."

The brown-haired man opened one eye, and gave his co-pilot a flat look.

"No, I don't, but I'm not going to whinge about it either. Why don't you go read or something?"

Brown glared at him, and stalked out of the lounge, muttering to himself.

"Very well done, Davis." Jennifer Cole said.

He winked at her, and closed his eyes again.

The auburn-haired young nurse was sitting at the lounge table, with her father Graham, the team's doctor, carefully writing out their inventory report for the week. Although the Air Relief had enough funds to keep the stock of medicine each team required fairly regular, paper-pushers will be paper-pushers, and so the two medical members of the team were providing the pushing material. Veemon walked into the room, Idly shuffling a pack of cards.

"Does anyone…?"

"No." the three humans responded at once.

Veemon smiled, and sat down by Davis's chair. 

"Everyone's wised up to me then?" 

"I always had." Davis replied without opening his eyes.

A sly look crossed the small Digimon's face.

"Where's Danny?"

Davis shook his hand in the vague direction of the door. Veemon left, following the co-pilot. 

"Does Danny still think he'll beat Veemon at poker?" Graham asked.

"Yup."

"What does Veemon do with the money?"

"Well, Veemon plays for fun, but if people are playing for money, they play harder, so Veemon takes it off him."

"And?"

"Well, you know how we've been having some really nice meal's lately?"

"Yeah. Your cooking's pretty good."

"Thankyou, but anyways, you know how expensive good ingredients are in Rosastan?"

"Yeah… oh."

"Uh-huh. Someday I'll thank Danny for his contribution to the meal fund."

=============================================================

Kari knocked politely on the office door, and then pushed it open.

"Ah, Kari. Nice of you to join us." The editor said.

"She's always been that way, boss." TK said.

She gave him a glare that could have pinned him to the wall, and sat down.

"Sorry I'm late. Traffic was awful."

Kazuo Kuramoto, The Editor of the _Oracle_, one of Japan's biggest newspapers, laughed.

"I was only joking, Kari, don't worry. Anyway, I called you two in here, because I've got an assignment for you." his face went serious. "And I'm afraid it isn't going to be an easy one."

"I didn't sign up for the easy ones, Boss."

"I never believe you did. Have you heard of the situation in Rosastan?"

Kari and TK dredged through their collective memories.

"South American country, currently embroiled in a civil war between the government and Rebels." TK started.

"With Drug Barons taking as much advantage as possible." Kari continued. "And all of the factions as bad as each other and committing various atrocities."

"Got it in one." Kuramoto replied. "And I want you two to go out there."

Kari blinked.

"You want us to do a war report?"

"Nope. Human interest. I want you to talk to the civilians caught in the crossfire. There's also a independent air-medical operation out there, Air Relief."

"I've heard of them. They operate in all the major crisis zones, don't they?"

"Yup." He leaned forward. "I'm not going to lie to you. Rosastan is a powder keg, and its ready to go off at any minute. You're going to be caught in the crossfire between three different factions." He smiled. "Try and put off getting in contact with AR as much as possible. They're a decent lot, but they like to try and keep their publicity down as much as possible."

"Why's that?"

"They don't want to be accused of pandering to the media. Also… they aren't really all that well like by governments, if you get my drift. They know how to take care of themselves, and corrupt officials don't really like people they cant intimidate."

"I imagine so." TK laughed.

"One, thing – take your Digimon with you. You may need their firepower at some point."

"Got it."

"Now get the hell out of my office."

"Yes, Boss." Kari smiled.

=============================================================

Davis tapped on the side of the Lynx helicopter, and pulled open the slide door at the side.

"Joe? You in here?"

"No, I'm still in bed."

Davis laughed, and stepped in out of the rain. Joe Thompson, the American engineer, handed him a towel.

"Thanks." The pilot said.

"No problem. What do you want?"

Davis smiled. The engineer's gruff manner never failed to cheer him up on a dreary day. And they'd had a lot of dreary days since they'd been assigned to Rosastan. 

"How's she holding together?"

"She's holding."

He smiled again.  In Thompson-ese, that meant that the Helicopter was as near to perfect as it could get.

"We're gonna be going out tomorrow, if the weather clears up."

"Okay. You might want to take it easy one the way there, clear all the condensation out of the venting system."

"It giving you worries?"

"Well, it's an old chopper. It doesn't clear up as much as it used to."

"Right."

"Oh, by the way, I found this I the map box."

He held up a large pistol. A .50cal Desert Eagle, Davis recognised.

"Danny's been buying toys again."

"Yup. He shouldn't have this thing, y'know."

"Put it back in the map box."

"Davis…"

"Joe, we're in a hostile country, surrounded by three warring factions. You never know when we might need that pistol."

The engineer looked unhappy, but nodded.

"And don't look like that. You know I'm right."

Thompson gave him a flat look.

"Yeah, you know it."

The engineer finally gave up the fight, and laughed.

"There, that's better." Davis said. "Now come in for dinner, you'll freeze your ass off out here."

=============================================================

Kari rooted around in her bag for her passport, and handed it over to the bored-looking man behind the desk at the airport. TK stood beside her, his own identification in his hand.

"Yes, Miss Kamiya, we've got your flight right here." The man said, handing over a ticket.

Kari glanced at it.

"First class?"

The bored-looking man actually smiled.

"I wouldn't take it too seriously. The flights to Rosastan are so small that first class just means you get a curtain in between you and everyone else."

Kari smiled, and nodded her thanks.

"He was joking, wasn't he?" TK said in a slightly worried tone as they walked down the boarding tunnel.

"I'm sure."

"Cos if he wasn't joking, I'm gonna kick the Boss's ass."

Kari gave him a withering look, but said nothing.

=============================================================

Davis spooned the angry red stew onto their plates, and the rest of the Rosastan air-relief team gave each other a Look. it was a Look that had passed around the table many times before, and the message it gave was 'Oh Christ, here we go again.'

One of Davis's primary forms on entertainment was cooking. That in itself wasn't bad. The problem was, that since Davis had begun travelling the world as a helicopter pilot for Air Relief, he had discovered a whole new range of spices. Again, in itself, this wasn't bad. 

But Davis had a penchant for experimenting. The various combinations that he came up with for those spices were enough to put the fear of god into all of his colleagues. The fact that Davis had a warped sense of Humour and served up the meals on reinforced metal plates didn't help his case any.

Jenny Cole watched as Veemon picked up his spoon. The small Digimon took one bite of the meal.

And toppled over.

"Davis, what the hell is in this?"

"I don't want to spoil the surprise."

Jenny sighed, and picked up her own spoon. She didn't fail to notice that the rest of the team were watching her intently.

"I KNOW I'm going to regret this." She muttered. 

Dipping the utensil into the stew, she took a bite. 

"Hmm. Not bad."

Davis watched, a half-smile on his handsome features.

The sensation came like a fireball from her mouth, and she coughed. Without even speaking, Davis handed her a glass of water.

"Thanks." She gasped.

"That's okay. It takes a coupla seconds to kick in."

Graham Cole grinned at his daughter.

"Now that we've established that Davis's cooking isn't Lethal – at least not instantly…"

"Bite me, Graham."

"That's not very polite Davis. Lets tuck in, guys."

They ate the meals, coughing frequently, drinking copious amounts of cool water, and discussing stuff as general as possible until they were ready. Finally, Cole reached down beside the table, and pulled out a map. He unrolled the large sheet, and as Davis cleared the dishes away, laid it across the table.

"Where have we got to go tomorrow?" Veemon asked.

"There's a village about fifty miles north of here, with a woman whose baby is due, so Jenny and I will be there for most of the day, I imagine."

"Oh, another one. Doesn't anyone have anything better to do in this country?"

"I imagine its something to do with the climate."

Veemon laughed. Davis smiled, and stood from the table.

"Okay, if that's all, I think we should all get some rest. We've got a full day ahead of us."

=============================================================

(A/n) yeah, I know, its another shortish chapter. Since this story is going to be relatively slowly moving, long chapters don't work as well if I want to maintain any kind of long running narrative. This chapter was more to introduce the other characters than to focus on the Digidestined, so please forgive me. ^^

I've gone back to a two-week chapter timetable. Now that TCOF is finished, I don't feel any particular need to rush, and I've got a few other projects on my mind that I want to write. Also, schoolwork, y'know?


	3. chapter 3

Chapter 3:

********

The Lynx's Rotors turned slowly in the dull morning light, as Davis warmed up the helicopters engines, gunning the motors in preparation for the moment when the aircraft would take to the sky, the massive down pressure pushing the mtalic bulk upwards.

"Rotor brake… off."

"RB off, check."

"Green light on main fuel pod. All electrical systems are reading go ahead."

"All systems, check."

Veemon looked through at them from the small passenger compartment behind the pilot area.

"Do you two have to do that? You both know the routine, so why do you have to go through it every time. The helicopters fine."

Jenny smiled down at the Digimon.

"Be nice, Veemon. Let the boys have their fun."

Davis and Danny both turned around to look at the pair. There was no expression on their faces.

"What?" Jenny asked innocently.

The Pilot and co-pilot glanced at each other, sighed, and turned back to their instruments.

=============================================================

Kari opened her eyes, to an unfamiliar room. The sickly beige curtains allowed light to come straight into the cramped room of the Rosastan central hotel. She sighed, and pulled down the covers. So far, this trip was not looking too happy.

She showered, and dressed quickly, before heading down to the dining room to breakfast. TK was waiting for her, looking down at his plate with a look of obvious distaste.

"You wanna eat out?"

"That bad?"

"Worse."

"Okay, let's go find a café or something."

TK gave her a look of profound thanks. They stood, and headed out through the lobby, and into the busy streets of Rosastan's capital. They walked for a few minutes, before stopping at a small café in one of the side streets. 

"Ever get the feeling you're being followed?" TK asked quietly.

"All the time. You should stop stalking me."

"Very funny. We've picked up a shadow, Kari."

"I know. He was following us when we got off the plane yesterday as well."

"Which is a nifty trick, since we haven't picked up our press ID's yet."

"Hmm."

She would have replied, but at that point, the waiter came over to take their order, the pad in his hand dictating that he wouldn't take 'no' for an answer. Kari glanced at the menu of local delicacies. Most of which seemed to consist of various different hamburgers. Apparently they'd walked into Rosastan's equivalent of McDonalds.

"Healthy."

"Yeah."

She ordered the Breakfast burger, and, leaned back allowing her eyes to stray away as if she was bored. It was a trick that had served her well over the years, and it did so now.

The man who had been following them was sitting by the door, casually leaning back, not even looking at them. He was good; she could say that for him.

"He still there?" TK said, pretending to glance at the menu.

"Uh-huh."

"Then I think that as soon as we've finished eating, we should head over to the embassy to collect our press IDs."

"I think that might be a good idea."

=============================================================

The small village looked like it had been caught in the middle of a war. Most of the places in Rosastan did. Davis felt the old anger well up within him when he saw the scars of fire on the white plaster facades of the small houses.

"Easy, mate." Danny said quietly.

Davis nodded, and began to ease off on the helicopters collective lever. The pitch of the engines changed, and the bulky aircraft began to lower itself into the dusty main square of the village. None of these places had proper doctors. At the most, they had some Nurse who'd had a sketchy medical training with basic illnesses, and who knew how to administer the vaccinations that the Air Relief team brought with them.

He felt the skids settle onto the ground, and switched off the engines. He activated the rotor brake, and swung open the canopy door that led into the cockpit. Almost immediately, he noticed the two men slouched against the side of one of the huts. Both were average-looking. Average, in fact, managed to describe just about everything about them. What drew Davis's attention, however, were the handguns pushed into their belts, and the Uzi submachine pistols lying on the small table between them.

"Danny, stay in the chopper, and open the map compartment."

Danny looked around nervously.

"I can't think what you mean, Davis."

"Don't bullshit me, Danny. We all know about your toy in there, so keep it within easy reach. Pretend to be checking the map, or something. You got any other gear?"

"Nope. Sorry."

"It's probably better that way. Joe, go help Jenny and Graham set up. You three keep out of harms way, no matter what."

The stoical Engineer nodded, and helped the slight nurse out of the rear compartment. Graham jumped down, and Stood next to Davis for a moment.

"Be careful, mate."

"Don't worry about me. You go help that woman."

Graham nodded, and between them, He and Joe lifted down the medical supplies box. As they began to move towards the hut, the two men picked up their Uzis, and began to head towards them. Davis stepped in between them, idly playing with his D3.

"Can I help you guys?"

The first man gave him a look.

"Yes, you can. You can hand over that box of medicine peacefully."

"Now, you guys know better than to suggest something like that. Who you with? The government or the rebels?"

Neither men answered, but they exchanged a look.

"Ah." Davis continued. "You're Sanchez's boys, huh?"

Veemon, unnoticed slipped behind the pair, and as Davis gently pressed the button on his digivice, his form grew into the three meter high incarnation of ExVeemon. Danny, meanwhile, used the distraction Davis was providing to slip his Desert Eagle into his lap, underneath the cover of the map.

"You know," Davis said, "I really figured that Sanchez would have given up on trying to screw us over. He hasn't managed to get these supplies out of us yet, so why doesn't he take the hint?"

The two men glanced at each other, and shrugged.

"The pure drugs in your box are worth a fortune, Mr Motomiya. If you weren't internationally sanctioned, the government would have taken them already."

Davis didn't show any surprise that they knew his name.

"I thought they might. But then, we'd have refused them as well. Tell Sanchez to look somewhere else for his pure material."

"You know, we could just take them from you."

"Or you could look behind you, and then rephrase that."

The pair glanced at each other, then over their shoulders. ExVeemon grinned at them. Given that the champion level Digimon had a mouth full of very sharp teeth; it would have been less unnerving if he'd snarled. The pair of hired hands glanced at each other again.

"I know what you're thinking. That he can't possibly get both of you before one of you shoots me. In which case I direct your attention to my co-pilot."

Danny raised a hand in greeting to the men. The Desert eagle remained levelled at them. Davis carried on talking.

"Then, of course, there is the slightly comic fact that…"

He grabbed the barrels of the Uzis. Both of the men pulled the triggers reflexively. All that came out was a pair of hollow clicks. Davis yanked the weapons out of their hands.

"…you both left the safety on."

Joe Thompson stepped out of the door of the hut, and Davis tossed one of the submachine guns to him. The big American caught it, clicked the safety catch, and levelled it at the two thugs, both of whom were blushing furiously. Davis levelled his own gun.

"Lose the small ones too."

The handguns clattered to the floor.

"Good boys. Now, you two are going to go back home, and mysteriously vanish from Diego Sanchez's service." He grinned. "If it's any consolation, you aren't the first ones to be in this situation. You'd think the asshole would take a hint after a while."

The two thugs glanced at each other, and walked away, their hands held steadily at their sides.

"Bright lads." Danny said. "I have a feeling they'll go far."

Davis safed his weapon, and tossed it to his co-pilot, as ExVeemon de-digivolved. Thompson nodded at him.

"Nice work."

"I didn't gamble on you turning up. Didn't I tell you to stay inside with the Doc?"

"Since when did I do what you told me? Besides, Graham has things in hand."

Davis smiled.

"Good. Now, where do you reckon the tavern is in this town?"

=============================================================

"Does it happen often?" Kari asked.

The Japanese Ambassador to Rosastan turned away from the window, and looked at the pair of Journalists sat across his desk. He shrugged.

"This is off the record, but in truth, it happens all too often. Barely a person turns up who isn't followed."

TK grinned humourlessly.  

"I thought it might be something like that. The guy seems just a little too professional to be another mook."

The Ambassador gave them a look.

"I know all about you two, Mr Takaishi. You two are well known in Diplomatic circles, and to be quite frank, you're not universally loved. You have a tendency to crop up where you're not wanted."

TK shrugged.

"I can live with that."

"I thought you might. And You, Miss Kamiya? What are your thoughts on this situation?"

"We're here to do a job. And we'll get it done."

The ambassador fixed them with a  level stare.

"I thought it might be like that."

He pushed two laminate dbadges across the table.

"These are your press ID's. They won't offer you much protection, but they may just suffice. I'm sure you've had a thorough briefing by your editor, but I'll repeat one thing – stay away from the Air Relief team. They've got enough problems without two nosy journalists poking around them."

Kari raised an eyebrow.

"Oh?"

"Miss Kamiya, in a country where half the exports are illegal narcotics, imagine what a large box full of medical quality drugs is worth."

She nodded.

"So. Looks like we won't be invited around to dinner then."

=============================================================

(A/n)

Yeesh.  I say that I'm going to do regular updates, then screw around like this. Sorry folks. My life's been a little hectic over the past coupla weeks. I was away on holiday two weeks ago, so I only wrote originals then, and then my old laptop finally gave up the ghost, so I had to transfer everything to my new one (all my customised dictionary settings – gone! ;_;), which, with an astonishing lack of foresight by the manufacturers, doesn't have a floppy disk drive – so I couldn't actually transfer anything until I picked up some CD-RWs.

Again, sorry for the late chapter. I'll TRY and get the new one up next week, but given that I have to write a short story for one of my potential universities, I might be a little rushed.

Ja ne!


	4. chapter 4

Chapter 4:

********

The pall of smoke that drifted across the newly abandoned field smelt sickly and sulphuric, its tang heading straight to the back of the throat. It stung Davis's eyes, and he cuffed at them angrily as he continued his search.

He heard a low groaning from off to his left, and called to his friend. 

"Joe! We've got another casualty here!"

Thompson came running through the haze, a folded stretcher under his arm. He saw the state of the person Davis was kneeling next to.

"Jesus…"

"He's busy right now, can I take a message?" Davis said tautly. The digidestined removed a Morphine Ampoule from the pouch at his side, and pressed it into the young mans arm. 

And in the growing light of the morning, Davis could see that the patient was indeed young. Kid couldn't even be more than seventeen, and he'd been pressed into service for either the rebels or the government. The kid gave a gurgling cough, spattering watery blood over Davis's shirt, and subsided once more into his barely-conscious state. Davis started slightly as he noticed that one of the boy's ribs was sticking out of his lower chest, the white bone exposed to the sunlight.

"Oh, dear god…"

He shook his horror away, and helped Thompson unfold the stretcher. He took the young man by the shoulders, as the engineer-cum-nurse grabbed the kid's feet.

"On three. One, two…"

They lifted, moving the boy onto the stretcher. Lifting the handles, they moved back towards the hastily erected tent where Graham and Jenny Cole had set up their station. Danny came out to meet them as they came. 

"Another one?"

"Yeah. There's hardly anyone alive out there."

"I didn't figure there would be." The co-pilot said grimly.

Davis and Thompson carried the stretcher past him into the tent. Graham Cole gave the boy a cursory look.

"I'll see what I can do."

"How's it going in here?"

Graham gave him a humourless smile.

"It's going. Keep the hell out of my way."

"Yes, sir."

The pair stepped back outside. Davis reached up to the strap of his goggles, and pulled out the battered pack of cigarettes that were contained there. He silently offered one to Thompson. The big engineer took one, and lit up. Davis lit his own cigarette, and inhaled deeply.

"Those things aren't good for you, y'know." Danny said quietly.

"I only smoke on days like this." 

"Got another one?"

Davis tossed him the packet. And inhaled again, allowing the smoke to move about his lungs. He blew it out into the afternoon air, and looked around him as the pall of sulphuric gunsmoke began to fade. He could hear the sound of rifles in the distance, and placed his hand lightly on the Uzi he had taken from Sanchez's thugs the other day.

The sound of the guns faded, and he moved his hand back to his lap. He sighed.

"Keep the chopper warming over, Danny."

"Got it."

"Doc! Anyone we need to airlift to Hospital?"

"Try all of them."

Davis grinned slightly, and stepped inside the tent. He closed his eyes when he saw the row of bodies with sheets drawn up over their faces. None of the kids could have been older than sixteen. He turned when he heard the sound of a helicopter outside.

=============================================================

Kari flashed her press ID, and Stepped inside the office. The man whom the Rosastan government had assigned to be their official liaison gave them a cursory glance as he continued to work on something lying on his desk. 

"I'll be with you in a minute. I have to clear up this report first. Bureaucratic rubbish, you know."

Kari and TK smiled slightly, and sat across from him. The 'bureaucratic rubbish', as Senor Martinez put it, was what had held them up from going out of the city for the past three days, and by this point, they were starting to get, as TK put it, "pretty fucked off."

Martinez finally finished looking at the report, and looked up at them. 

"Now, I understand that you wish to go out of the city and visit the battlefields to do a piece for the _Oracle in Japan."_

"That is correct, sir."

"Alright then. Are you free this afternoon?"

Kari was slightly taken aback. After the run-around they'd been given all week, this change in attitude was somewhat surprising. Martinez gave a slight grin.

"I know this may seem surprising, but believe me when I say that we haven't actually HAD a battle in this country for the past two weeks. I expect you'll be wanting some shocking pictures, so we're going to take you out to somewhere…shall we say, fresh."

TK blinked.

"…Fresh?"

"There was a battle this morning out in the countryside."

Kari raised an Eyebrow.

"And you've heard about it already?"

"Unlike the Rebels, we have a decent communications network. I'm sure we were victorious."

"I'm sure." Kari replied.

=============================================================

"Davis?" Jenny said quietly?

"Yeah?"

"I hate to ask this, but…"

Davis rolled his eyes.

"What do you need?"

"We're running out of fuel for the generator. Sorry."

"Okay, okay. C'mon, Danny, lets head home."

The other man nodded, and the pair of them got to their feet, heading for the lynx. Running quickly through the standard checks, they started the motors, and lifted the big machine up into the air. Danny took a quick glance at the map, and switched on the radio.

"MP seven, this is helicopter AR one out in sector B-3, over."

A couple of seconds later, the local military post replied. Davis listened in over his own headset.

"AR one, this is MP seven, over."

"MP seven, we're flying over the remains of the battle this morning, and we need some hot-point warnings, over."

"Copy, AR one. What's your bearing, over?"

"Bearing two-seven-five for sector A-2, over."

"Copy. Be back to you in a moment."

"Roger that."

They waited in silence for a minute.

"AR one, we've got the hot-points report on your bearing, over."

"Copy."

"You've got a few small skirmishes taking place all over sector B-2, and a few at the border between B-3 and A-1, over."

"Copy that. Anything else we need to know?"

"You've got some troops deployed near to your base-camp. They are entirely for your own protection, over."

"Of course. Thanks for the heads-up, BP-seven. AR-one, over and out."

Danny hit the call cut-off switch, and leaned back, using a pencil to mark the hot-spots on the map. Davis sighed.

"You know, I wouldn't mind it so much if they actually ADMITTED that they wanted to keep an eye on us."

"Huh. You wish, buddy. You want me to give Veemon a heads up at base?"

"Nah. He can handle himself."

A loud 'ping' noise sounded outside, and Danny ducked.

"Shit!"

Davis felt a slight surge and loss in the power, as the bullets from down below chipped a rotor blade. Although neither the rebels or the government would intentionally fire on the Air Relief chopper, it's a little difficult to see the markings on a helicopter from inside a jungle, and a group of kids with rifles tend to be a trifle over-enthusiastic.

"Hold on tight, Danny!"

He slammed the Collective forward hard, and the lynx surged upwards into the air at an alarming rate. Danny held onto his stomach, and then, with an amazing lack of grace, turned and vomited out of the window. Davis began to laugh helplessly.

"Well, that's just charming. Nice one, Danny."

The co-pilot sheepishly wiped his mouth. 

"Sorry."

"Don't apologise to me. But spare a thought for those poor bastards underneath us."

Danny winced.

=============================================================

Kari very gently lifted the digital camera from its travelling case, and switched it on. She glanced quickly at the display, and removed the data card containing Cody's birthday pictures, placing it in a pouch with several others. She removed a blank card, and slotted it into the camera. TK was still talking to Martinez in the front seat of the military Gazelle transport helicopter.

"Does this sort of skirmish happen often?" he shouted over the roar of the rotor blades.

"Unfortunately, way too much. Both the government and the rebels lose large amounts of people in the jungle, and even more when they stumble across some drug-dealers hidden supply dump."

"The drug dealers fight it out with both sides?"

"Yes. And they usually win. The jungle is their territory, and we just happen to be visiting."

TK nodded, and jotted something down on his PDA. Now that they were out of the confines of the city, Martinez had turned out to be a reasonably nice guy. He wasn't the kind of person Kari would have pictured in the service of the corrupt Rosastan government, but he had gone into politics recently enough to still have the edge of idealism that most of his counterparts had lost. She glanced up, as the helicopter began to descend.

The field was a mess. The smell of gunsmoke, still familiar to her from the crisis zones she had visited before, hung over the place like shroud. A tent was pitched at the far end of the field.

"Well, looky here…" Martinez said, a happy edge to his voice. He glanced at the two reporters. "Gimme a second. I need to go speak to these guys."

"Sure thing. You mind if we look around?"

"Go ahead." He glanced at the soldier who had accompanied them, and said something in rapid Portuguese. The man nodded, and stepped down. "This guy'll accompany you. He wont obstruct you, though."

"Thanks." TK said.

Martinez nodded, and headed off to the tent. A heavily built man stepped out to meet him, as Kari aimed her digital camera across the field, and took a quick shot. She and TK headed through the smoke, accompanied by their silent guardian. She halted, as, for a single moment, the smoke cleared, revealing the carnage.

The scorched ground was pitted with holes, and scattered all over the field were bodies. Kari had been in battlefields before, but never had she seen something like this. She glanced down, and leapt back as she realised that a disembodied hand was next to her foot.

"Oh my god…"

TK's face was grave.

"I don't think he's around right now, Kari. Take a couple of shots, and let's get out of here."

Kari aimed her camera, and snapped a pair of quick shots. Then, accompanied by the soldier, whose face was anguished at the sight of the field, they turned and headed back to the helicopter. Martinez was waiting for them, his face also grief-stricken.

"I… am sorry, my friends. I did not know that this place was going to be this bad. It is the first time in a while when both sides of the conflict met over open ground. The people over there," he gestured towards the tent. "Are members of the Air Relief medical team in this country. They've saved as many as they can, but… it doesn't look like most will survive."

"I'm sorry, Mr Martinez." TK said, emphatically.

Martinez waved the apology away.

"It is not your fault. How could it be? But I thank you for your words."

A big man suddenly came bounding out of the tent, his face tense.

"Marty! We've got trouble!"

Martinez turned around.

"What is it, Joe?"

"We've got Rebels and military forces moving back into this area. We cant get out at the moment, and our Pilots still on his way back!"

Martinez cursed emphatically. Kari looked puzzled.

"Huh? Why can't we leave in the helicopter?"

"The rebels will always fire on aircraft with military markings. Our only hope is to wait for the Air Relief helicopter to make it back."

"What's the problem with that?"

"They have to now make it through the biggest military battle this country has ever seen."

=============================================================

(A/N)

A slightly longer chapter for ya'll this week! At least it isn't as late this time, right?

well, the big news is that since I last updated, my site has finally gone over the 10000 hits mark! Thankyou all!

And, in celebration, why don't you all come and join my forum (hint hint.) at 


	5. Chapter 5

Chapter 5:

********

Joe Thompson began to hastily shove the supplies into backpacks, pushing food and clothing deep into their recesses. He added up their inventory mentally, and swore.

"What's up? Graham said.

"We're too heavy. Even with the burgens from the military chopper. We just wont be able to carry everything out of here."

"We have to take the medical box."

"I know that, Doc!" 

He glanced over at TK and Kari.

"You two are gonna have to help."

To their credit, TK and a Kari just nodded, rather than arguing.

"where are we gonna be heading?" Jenny asked.

"Up into the Mountains. We'll be able to attract the Choppers attentions more easily there."

"Makes sense. Better get moving."

Graham took one last look at his line of patients, and hefted his bag. Thompson patted him on the shoulder.

"You did the best you could, Doc. Their own people'll take care of them."

Graham nodded. TK glanced at Kari.

"Did you bring your digivice?"

"Nope. I left it at the hotel."

"Grrrreat." 

Gatomon perked up from beside Kari.

"Give her a break, TK. You forgot yours as well."

TK had the guts to look slightly sheepish. The group got to their feet, and headed for the dense foliage of the Jungle. Fortunately for the two digidestined, they remembered enough of their time roughing it in the digital world to be okay. Martinez, however, did not look especially comfortable. The Air Relief team, and their friendly trooper, however, moved through the jungle like they were a part of it. They stopped in a small clearing a little way up the hillside, and glanced back. Thompson swore vigorously.

"Fucking idiot! What the hells he doing?"

The Military helicopter that had carried them out there was lifting slowly into the sky. Thompson watched it angrily.

"If he doesn't step on the collective, he's gonna be fried!"

Even as the big American finished speaking, a trail of smoke coursed up from the Jungle, opposite them, and slammed into the side of the Gazelle. The Rocket-propelled grenade exploded loudly, and the party threw itself to the ground as shrapnel flew through the air towards them. TK flinched as he felt the tree he lay against shudder as a piece of metal the size of his hand buried itself six inches deep in the surface. The Remains of the helicopter fell to the ground with a huge explosion, annihilating the tent where Graham had set up his medical post.

"Sonovabitch!" Thompson cursed. He got back to his feet, shaking his head.

Graham looked like he'd been ripped apart. 

"There was nothing you could've done." TK said.

"I know that. It doesn't make it any easier."

The small group continued to head into the mountains, heavy packs weighing them down more by the second.

=============================================================

Davis carried the barrel of fuel to the Helicopter, Straining under the weight of the highly compressed material inside. Danny sat in the cockpit, his Headphones jammed on tightly as he listened intently to the messages coming in over the military circuits.

"Ditch the fuel, mate! They aren't gonna need it!"

"Huh?"

"We've got military and rebel forces moving back into that area! We've got to get over there and Evac immediately! We've already got reports of one downed military chopper!"

Davis didn't waste any time. Bracing a hand on the door, he vaulted up into the seat and pulled on his headphones. His hands began to fly across the control pads, flicking switches. The rotor blades began to turn above them.

=============================================================

The straps of the backpack dug into Kari's Backpack as they moved through the dense Jungle of the Rosastan countryside, heading further and further up the side of a mountain, to where they could hopefully make a successful rendezvous with the Air Relief helicopter. The Ironic thought that, despite the amount of times they'd been told to avoid the relief group, they'd managed to end up with them anyways hadn't escaped her notice.

Thompson grabbed her arm, and she froze.

"What?"

The big man reached over to her neck, and grabbed something. The huge spider that he held by its front legs struggled for a minute until Thompson slammed it hard against a tree.

"Bloody things."

Kari shuddered.

"Was it poisonous?"

"No, but it could've taken a chunk out of you. Its one of the few spiders in the world that has fangs big enough too…"

Kari held up a hand.

"Please, I don't need to know."

"Theres snakes as well…"

"JOE!"

A few paces behind, TK was talking with Jennifer and Graham Cole.

"I didn't feel comfortable working in a surgery day in, day out." The doctor was saying.

"So you decided to come out here?"

"Yup. I wanted to feel like I was making a difference. Once thing you can say about the AR is that we're all idealists."

"Well, most of us, anyway."

Graham aimed an enquiring look at his daughter. The girl shrugged.

"I'm not quite sure what Davis is."

TK stopped in his tracks.

"Davis?"

"Yeah. That's the name of our pilot."

"What's his second name?"

"Motomiya. Oh, Davis isn't his real first name, of course. It's more of a nickname. His real first names…"

"Daisuke?" 

Graham and Jenny both stopped and looked at the blonde man.

"You know him?"

"You could say that…"

=============================================================

Davis threw the helicopter into a frantic turn, gunning both the throttles and the collective at the same time to keep the machine in the air. Behind him, a streak of white smoke trailed into the air.

"Ditch countermeasures, fast!"

Danny hit a switch on the board in front of him, and a flare popped out of the back of the helicopter, dropping slowly through the air. The white streak followed it down, detonating behind them with a fiery crack.

Davis swore.

"We're gonna end up with some serious trouble soon!"

"You noticed, well done!"

Davis glared at his friend, and set the aircraft back onto its course. As he glanced at the rear-view mirror, he saw two other helicopters hove into view behind them. Snub-nosed missiles nestled under their wings, ominously pointing at the smaller chopper. The radio suddenly cut in.

"Unidentified helicopter, cease your activities immediately!"

"Unidentified?" Davis muttered. He pressed the transmit button. "This is Air Relief helicopter AR one. We are civilian helicopter, repeat, civilian!"

"Unidentified helicopter, we are not receiving any IFF signal from you! Cease your activities, or we will be forced to fire!"

A loud, high-pitched tone sounded throughout the cockpit, telling the two men inside that the other helicopter had established a missile lock. Davis glanced at Danny.

"Please tell me you switched on the IFF."

Danny reached over and flicked the switch for the Identification Friend or Foe beacon. The look Davis gave his friend was one of abject disgust.

"AR one, we apologise. We have received your IFF. Be advised, you are heading in to a combat area."

"Acknowledged. We have to make an emergency extraction."

"Roger that. Good luck, AR one."

"Thanks. Over and out."

Davis ended the transmission, and even as the Lynx continued its path through the carnage,  he reached over, and slapped Danny across the back of the head.

"You dumb ASSHOLE!"

=============================================================

Thompson glared at the handheld radio.

"Piece of shit! I can't even get a decent signal from Davis at this distance!"

"That would figure." Kari said.

Graham glanced around the clearing, and then at Martinez.

"Did you get any information on how far away the forces were when we left?"

The Bureaucrat shook his head.

"Nothing. Only that they were moving into that area. Open ground attracts militants like flies these days."

"Tell me about it."

The silent trooper had picked up one of the Requisitioned Uzi's, and was standing a little way away. Thompson went over to him, and handed him a spare clip. 

"Keep an eye out."

"You got it."

Kari, TK and Martinez looked at the man in astonishment.

"You never told us you spoke English!"

The Trooper shrugged.

"You never asked."

Kari and Jenny sat together, looking into the afternoon sky.

"So, how do you know Davis?" the nurse asked.

"We were digidestined together. Spent most of our school life together as well."

"The famous Odaiba digidestined?" Jenny said, without a trace of irony.

"The very same." Kari said. "Although I can usually live without that fame."

"I imagine so." The other girl grinned. "It cant be a great amount of fun, when everyone knows who you are."

Kari laughed.

"It doesn't make assignments too easy."

Gunfire suddenly echoed through the forest, and both Thompson and the trooper jerked their Uzi's up to level height. The group threw itself to the floor as chips flew from one of the nearby trees.

"I think this is just stray shots!" TK shouted.

"Yeah! They must be further back into the foliage!"

Thompson prayed silently that no-one had seen them make their way up here. Given that they were carrying the box of medical supplies, and the fact that every shepherd and his dog was in the pay of one drug-boss or another, they were sitting ducks for the cartels. He reached for the radio again.

"AR team to AR one, come back!"

This time, however, the handheld set crackled into life.

"This is AR one!"

"Where the hell have you been, you lazy fuck?!?"

"Shut up, and listen, Joe! We're coming in fast and hot, and we wont have much time for extraction! You've got forces moving in on your position!"

Thompson didn't even flinch as a bullet ricocheted into the air off the rock beside him.

"…We noticed."

"Okay, Danny's gonna be dropping a winch and ladder form the side door as soon as we come over. Hook on the med supplies, and start climbing. How many of you are there?"

"Seven."

"Okay, get as many as you can onto the ladder, and we'll start pulling them up."

They could hear the throb of the rotors now, pulsing in the clearing like thunder. The Lynx helicopter hoved into view above the trees, the winch and ladder descending from its side door ever as it moved. Kari could see the familiar spiked hairstyle through the front canopy.

"Move!" Thompson yelled. 

Martinez went first, climbing up the ladder easily despite ht eweight of the backpack, with Jenny hot on his heels. Kari began heading up, as TK and Graham went on behind her. Thompson and the trooper remained until last, hooking the medical box onto the winch, the big American going first, and the Rosastanian following. Kari reached down, and helped Thompson into the belly of the helicopter, as the trooper began to pull himself in.

Kari heard a loud burst of gunfire and something wet splattered onto her face. She reached up and wiped her hand across her cheek. When it came away, it was red. The Rosastan trooper blinked once, and then slowly glanced down at his chest. His hand began to slip, and despite Thompson's best efforts, he fell from the rim of the helicopter, falling back to the ground below.

"Kari! I need some help here! Davis, get us home fast!" Jenny's yell punctuated the throbbing silence.

She turned around, and saw a blonde head of hair, now streaked with red. The bullet that had passed through the trooper had caught the side of TK's head, and now her lifelong best friend was bleeding all over the bay of the helicopter.

Davis didn't even have time to say Hello as he spun the aircraft, aiming towards home.

=============================================================

(a/n) phew… sorry for the lateness of the chapter, but I've been inundated with huge amounts of work over the past few weeks, and haven't really had the chance to write much.

Okay, three things!

1) Me, and my Moderator, Rialisis, have decided to hold a challenge for the birthday of the digifiction domain this year! For details, go to my forum 1 on my site, and take a look at the announcements section. You actually have to sign up to the forum to access that bit, but you don't necessarily have to stick around, however it is a laugh there.

2) I'm not gonna get another chapter of this up till about two weeks after Christmas, as I'm planning something for the Christmas holidays. Basically, I'm going to write a whole fanfic over the Christmas period, covering a few of my favourite couples.

3) I have a new profile on a different site! I now have a profile at . Its mainly for my original stuff, but sometimes I will post fanfics there as well.

That's about it! Ja ne!


	6. Chapter 6

Chapter 6:

********

The helicopter swept in low over the clearing, swooping into a quick descent for the AR base, touching quickly down onto the helipad, Davis and Danny ran through the familiar litany of checks.

"Rotor brake engaged!"

"Engine off! Systems off!"

"Lets get TK inside!"

"Got it!"

There was no time for conscious thought at this point, only desperate, rapid action. Davis leapt from the cockpit, and pulled open the Lynx's bay door. Joe Thompson immediately got out, turning to grab the handles of the stretcher that Davis's blonde friend lay on.

"Into the surgery, go, go!"

Danny grabbed the back two handles of the carrying device, and then they were moving, fast towards the main building. The soldiers that the Rosastan government had placed to watch the medical team stared at the wounded man in disbelief. Davis looked at the nearest two.

"You and you, get into the chopper, and move the box of medical supplies inside. NOW!"

The digidestined may not have been a soldier, but the men recognised a voice of authority when they heard it. In this case, the fact that one look at Davis's face encouraged them to do what he said also helped. Martinez glanced at the spike-haired man, before quickly translating.

"Anything you want the rest of these boys to do?"

"No. just tell them to keep out of the way. A medical emergency in progress, you know."

"Not really, no." the Rosastanian gave a wry grin, before turning to the troopers.

Davis turned and headed into the building, heading for the small surgical suite that the unit kept on hand. Kari and Joe were standing outside the door.

"How is he?"

"He's alive." Joe replied.

Davis let his breath put in one long gasp, and collapsed onto a chair.

"Well, that's something at least. Any other info?"

"The doc isn't sure."

The pilot nodded, as Veemon came in from the other room, heading for his partner.

"I heard you coming in. Hi Kari."

He took a couple more steps before he realised. Slowly, he turned back to her.

"Hey, Veemon. Long time." She said absently. The girl was staring of into the middle distance, absently picking at the drying blood on her cheek. Joe gave Davis a look. The pilot nodded, and stood.

"C'mon, Kari. There's nothing you can do here."

"But…" 

"No buts. If I leave you here, you'll beat yourself up over it, when it wasn't your fault. Now come with me."

Kari looked up in surprise at the competent authority in his voice. Clearly, this wasn't the Boyish Davis who'd left Odaiba three years ago. Silently, she stood and followed him. Gatomon looked at Veemon.

"Well. That was weird."

"Not really."

"Uh…huh. Let's go find Patomon. He's gonna be upset."

"You're probably right."

=============================================================

Kari, her mind a million or so miles away, followed Davis into the kitchen without even a word. He gestured for her to sit down at the table, and opened the fridge. As she watched him, Kari noticed how big Davis's shoulders looked in the flight suit. For a moment, she wondered what it would be like to bury her face in one of those shoulders for a few minutes, and just bawl her eyes out.

'_For gods sake, Kari, how old are you?' she berated herself._

Well, she supposed she'd have to be the one to open the conversation. 

"It's been a while Davis."

"Does three years constitute a 'while' now?"

She laughed slightly, but there was no humour in the sound. She could find no humour this day. Davis withdrew a pack of bacon from the fridge, and knocked it shut with his knee as he stood. turning on the stove, he began to fry the bacon lightly, paying attention to both the food and Kari. She could tell that he was watching her from the corner of his eye, and as the smell of the meat went past her, she realised how hungry she was.

"So, you're a reporter now?"

"So they tell me. And you're a hotshot pilot."

"Less likely things have happened. I could be a soldier."

For the first time since she had arrived at the Air Relief base, Kari laughed a genuine laugh.

"Now that could never happen."

"Thanks. Really."

Kari stood, and walked over to look out the window. She could see an armoured vehicle and a couple of jeeps out in the jungle.

"The Rosastan government seems to feel the compulsive need to keep an eye on us." Davis said without turning.

"How did you do that?"

"Magic. Can you pass me that loaf of bread?"

Kari glanced around, and handed the homemade loaf over to him. Slicing a large chunk off, Davis rolled the bacon in it, and passed it to her. She looked at it uncomprehendingly.

"Eat."

"I don't… I'm not hungry."

The growling rumble that emanated from her stomach invalidated her statement. Davis raised an eyebrow.

"…Its just…"

"I know. But you can't help TK by starving yourself. You're better off regaining some of your strength for when he wakes up."

Kari glared at him.

"When the hell did you develop telepathy?"

"When I started doing a dangerous job for a living."

=============================================================

They found Patomon in the radio room, sitting desolately on top of one of the shelves. Veemon hoisted himself up, and sat next to the little dog-pig.

"Heya, pal."

Patomon gave an acknowledging grunt.

"Jeez, are you always this reticent?"

Gatomon glared at her friend.

"Back off, Veemon. His partners been hurt!"

Veemon fixed her with a level stare.

"And precisely how is his moping in here going to help that?"

Gatomon opened her, mouth, but found that she had nothing to say. Veemon turned back to his subject.

"Lets not bullshit ourselves. TK's been hurt. It's possible he'll die. But you sitting in here, feeling sorry for yourself is gonna accomplish precisely fuck all."

"I don't wanna go on without TK…"

Veemon sighed.

"I'm sorry it came to this. V-HEADBUTT!"

The small dinosaur Digimon slammed his head forward, and knocked Patomon to the ground. The flyer Digimon came to his feet fast, his teeth bared, as Veemon dropped to the floor. Gatomon jumped in between them, her claws extended as she glared at Veemon.

"What the hell did you do that for?" Patomon snapped.

"Well, it's good to see you haven't completely lost your wits." Veemon replied. "Now that you're up, you might as well come down to the medical room, and wait for your partner to come out of surgery."

"You son of a…"

Whatever Veemon was a son of, it was cut off by a voice emanating from the radio.

"AR base, this is MP seven, come back."

Veemon glanced at the fuming Patomon.

"You mind if we continue this in a minute? I should probably take this."

Without waiting for an answer, he hopped up onto the table, and took down the microphone.

"MP seven, this is AR base, over."

"Roger, AR base. I'm calling to confirm safety of people in your area, over."

"MP seven, we have one casualty, currently being treated, and we've picked up a few new passengers, including a member of the foreign affairs department, callsign unknown, over."

"Roger that, AR base. Callsign is Foxtrot-Alpha twelve, what is his condition? Over"

"Condition is slightly rattled but physically unharmed, over."

"Many thanks, AR base. We will send a retrieval vehicle when one is available, which will also be carrying your latest package. Do you want the Hot Point report? Over"

"Might be helpful, MP seven, over."

"Currently no Hot Points in your area, and no recorded presence of rebel elements. However, there have been reports of skirmishes in sector A-5, over."

Veemon eyed the map. A-5 was about fifty miles to the south. No immediate threat.

"Roger that, MP seven, many thanks. AR base, over and out."

"Roger. MP seven, over and out."

Veemon toggled the circuit closed, and dropped back to the floor.

"What's the latest package?" Patomon asked.

"Medical supplies. The military are Kind enough to escort them over, so the drug barons don't get their hands on them. They'll call later with the details."

"But haven't you let the drug barons know where they are by doing that?"

"Yeah. But since both the government and the Rebels are fans of us, since we're impartial, they jointly guard the convoy, both in guerrilla and official capacity. Anyways, I thought you were mad at me?"

"I am. But you were right in the first place, so I guess you're forgiven."

"I am? Dammit, I wasn't trying hard enough!"

Gatomon rolled her eyes, and led the way to the door.

=============================================================

Jenny looked tired when she walked into the kitchen a couple of hours later. It had been dark for a while, and wordlessly, Davis pulled a beer out of the fridge and tossed it to her. The slight looking girl caught the can, popped the tab, and slugged it back with surprising zest.

"How did it go?" he asked.

"He's gonna be okay. It took longer than we thought it would, because the bullet glanced off his skull really shallowly. We thought we were dealing with two holes when we really only had one big one. He lost a fair amount of blood. Danny's taking first observation period."

Kari glanced at Davis.

"Your co-pilot?"

"He's a trained medic too. Not full doctor, but trained in field medicine."

"What about you?"

"He makes it up as he goes along." Jenny said, as she rooted through the cupboard. "Are there any leftovers around? I don't feel like cooking anything up right now."

"Some stew's in the cupboard."

"The same stuff we had yesterday?"

"Yeah. I'm not sure what effect leaving it for a while might have had, though."

Jenny shrugged, and pulled out the covered bowl. Grabbing a spoon from the drawer, she began to eat.

"Where's Graham?"

"Dad went to bed. He's got second watch."

"How about you?"

"I've got a pretty good case of the shakes building." She held up her hand, and they watch as it wavered slightly. "But I'll be okay." She caught Kari's questioning look. "It's similar to combat high. In an emergency operation, the adrenaline levels build to compensate for the activity, and it takes a while for it to flush out of the system."

"Oh." Kari stood.  "I'm sorry to have to impose, but is there anywhere I can sleep?"

"Sure. We've got plenty of spare rooms. I got Joe to stow your gear earlier." Jenny replied.

"Thanks."

Davis got up.

"I'll show you."

He headed away down the hall, noting that Patomon, Gatomon and Veemon were sleeping comfortably on the cushioned chairs outside the recovery room as he went. He stopped outside a nondescript door.

"Here ya go. All the comforts of the average motel. Without the coin operation."

Kari smiled slightly, and glanced inside. The room looked average, but comfortable. She noted that her camera-bag and laptop were on the floor next to the cupboard. She turned, and looked up at Davis.

"Thankyou."

He grinned that old, rakish grin she knew so well.

"Hey, no problem. You're welcome for as long as you need."

He turned and started to head down the hallway. Kari caught hold of his arm. He stopped, feeling the warmth of her fingers.

"Davis… I'm glad I met you again."

The smile on his face was slight, but happy.

"Me too, Kari. Me too."

He gently disengaged her hand from his arm, and headed back towards the kitchen. Kari shut her door, and flopped down onto the bed, without even bothering to get changed. She spent a long time staring into the darkness before finally falling asleep.

=============================================================

(a/n) phew, guess its been a while huh? Sorry about the lack of updateness, but I started several projects over the Xmas holidays none of which really went anywhere, except for my new resolution of original writing. But, I'm back on, and I might actually do another chapter of this one next week, just to be nice. Or not be nice, as the case may be.

PLEASE JOIN MY FORUM!!!!!!!

It's at mooseofdoom.freewebpage.org, or can be reached from my actually website by clicking on the "Forum 1" button! JOIN US!!! I LIKE TO TALK TO PEOPLE, AND EXCHANGE IDEAS! HELP THE DFD FORUM BECOME AS BIG A SUCCESS AS THE SITE!!!!


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7:

********

Davis woke late that morning, and glanced out the window. A cold, grey sky greeted him. He glanced at the clock, which blinked the numbers _9:00 back at him._

And it was absolutely pissing it down. He sighed, and considered, however briefly, rolling back underneath the covers for another hour. Veemon put paid to that thought, however by leaping on top of him, and slamming his forehead vigorously into the digidestined's side. Not enough to do any serious damage, if course, but enough to vanquish any remaining interest in sleep.

"Alright, I'm awake you little blue asshole!" Davis snarled. 

Getting to his feet, he pulled a pair of tattered blue jeans over his boxer shorts, and the sleeveless t-shirt that went over his chest was like a second layer of skin. His spiky hair shot out in all directions, but at this time in the morning, the last thing on Daisuke Motomiya's mind was his appearance. The first, however, was the smell of coffee that wafted deliciously in his direction from the kitchen.

With the mannerisms of a big cat searching out its prey, Davis followed the scent.

=============================================================

TK, on the other hand, had a relatively pleasant awakening. Mainly because he was still floating on a nice cloud of anaesthetic. As his mind struggled to clear itself of the haze, he became aware of a girl sitting by his bed. Something told him he should know her, and she seemed familiar… but he couldn't figure it out.

In his current state, it suddenly seemed like a very good idea to try and talk to her.

"er 'm eeh?"

The girl coked and eyebrow at him. 

"Yes, its probably NOT a good idea to try and talk whilst under the influence of heavy anaesthetic, Mr Takaishi."

TK felt like an idiot, and told her so.

"'M 'n jit." 

"… No still not understanding a single word. If you're worried about you memory, short term loss is a common side effect of this kind of trauma, so please stop trying to talk until the effects of the medications have worn off."

This seemed like a very good idea. TK gave a slight nod, and some part of him noticed that the girl was speaking in an English accent. Not the posh accent he'd heard in films, but the 'real' British accent used by the average person in the south-east of the UK. She went back to her book, as TK  looked about him at the restricted view only being able to move his eyes gave him. It looked like hospital, but it felt different, for some reason. More…homely. He blinked a couple of times, and the haze in front of his eyes seemed to clear up. He decided to give it another try.

"eh… hi?"

The girls eye's came up from her book, and studied him gravely.

"Seems the effects are beginning to wear off. Can you feel anything below your neck?"

"a little?"

"Probably not safe to prop you up yet, then."

"Where am I?"

"The Air relief base in Rosastan."

The events of the past day came flooding back to the blonde man. The battlefield, the hike through the mountains, the gunshot, the searing pain in his head, and the blood on the soldier's chest. He finally recognised the nurse next to him.

"Jenny, did the soldier with us make it?"

She shook her head slightly. TK closed his eyes.

"It wasn't your fault."

"I know. I just… want to fix his face in my mind before it fades away." He stopped, 

brooding. "Sorry I didn't recognise you."

Her voice softened, and the professional medical voice changed back into the normality of Jenny Cole.

"Like I said, with a trauma like the one you experienced, I'm not surprised you had some short term memory loss."

"Trauma?"

"The bullet that hit the soldier hit you as well. The headache you've got should illustrate how dangerous that was."

TK noticed the dull pain along the side of his skull for the first time.

"Thanks."

"You'd have felt it eventually. I'll go get you a glass of water."

"Can I have a whisky in it?"

"Not bloody likely."

=============================================================

Danny looked up from the morning paper as Davis stalked into the kitchen, making for the coffee pot. Kari turned to look at her friend.

"Morning, Davis."

He waved, and grunted at her, as Danny turned back to the paper.

"Don't bother. at this time of the morning, he needs three coffee's just to wake him up." Davis poured himself a cup, without looking at them. "It's a very single minded intent, and at times, its even scary."

"My Precioussssss…" Davis hissed. Kari gave him a strange look, then glanced at Danny.

"See what I mean."

The brown haired digidestined drank deeply from his mug, and sighed gloriously.

"And THAT'S a good coffee. What ones this, Danny?"

"The stuff from the village in D-7."

"Any babies due there?"

"In a coupla weeks."

"Sweet."

Davis sat down at the table, and nodded to Kari.

"Morning."

Kari looked from one to the other, then burst out laughing. Davis gave Danny a sidelong glance, shrugged, and glanced at the paper his friend held.

"Erm… Danny?"

"Yeah?"

"Why are you reading the paper?"

"because I like to keep up with the new, moron."

"…you don't speak Portuguese, Danny."

"I get the gist of it."

Davis shook his head, and picked up an apple from the fruit bowl. Veemon walked in behind him.

"Armoured transports on its way. Usual level of security."

"Cool. We were getting low on stock."

"Its also going to take Mr Martinez back. He around?"

"Nah, he's staying out with the troops. Guess he doesn't trust us that much."

"Name one government official who does. You seen Gatomon or Patomon anywhere?"

"Gatomon's in my room." Kari said.

Veemon nodded his thanks, and headed out. Kari raised an eyebrow.

"I guess you've both grown up."

Davis grinned.

"Shit happens."

"Maybe not." 

=============================================================

Veemon knocked on the door to Kari's bedroom, and waited.

"C'mon in." Gatomon's voice said.

Pushing the door open, the small blue Digimon headed in.

"Heya."

"Hi." Gatomon said coldly.

'Oh, shit.' Veemon thought. 'She's pissed.'

"Okay, what's wrong?"

"I don't know what you mean."

"Bullshit. I've done something to piss you off, and we might as well get it out of the way now. Hey, if you want to hit me go ahead; after all, you're a champion level, right?"

She glared at him.

"You know I won't do that."

"Maybe. So what's wrong?"

"Did you have to treat Patomon that way last night?"

"Yes. Next question?"

the cat Digimon blinked.

"huh?"

"Yes, I did have to treat him that way. Anything else you wanted to know?"

"But…"

"But why? Because he was bordering on a case of psychological shock, and the best solution at that time was to make him angry enough to pull out of it."

"How…"

"How did I know? What, did you think I've been sitting on my ass for the past three years? I did a correspondence psychology course with Davis. We're the only psychological backup this team has."

She raised an eyebrow.

"That's…"

"disturbing? I know."

"WILL YOU…"

"Let you finish a sentence? Not likely."

He ducked out the way, as she launched at him, laughing.

=============================================================

Davis, dressed casually in Jeans, T-shirt and with a baseball cap jammed backwards onto his head, held the plate in place on the side of the lynx as Thompson began to screw it into place.

"So, you and Kari have a history, huh?" the American asked.

"You could say that."

"How much of a history?"

"Most of it's documented, bud."

"C'mon, man, dish the dirt!"

Davis resisted the temptation to swiftly kick Thompson in the side.

"No dirt to be dished, mate."

"Bull. There's something there."

"You send far to much time poking into other peoples business for your own good."

"Oh, I know."

Thompson put down the screwdriver, and picked up a welder. The pair stayed silent as he carefully sealed the plate in place. Finally, the two slumped down beside the helicopter, and looked at the rain dripping over the top of the tarpaulin roof stretched over the pad.

"So?"

Davis grinned.

"I had the BIGGEST thing for Kari, okay?"

"For how long?"

"Right up until I left Odaiba, three years ago."

"And now?"

"None of your fuckin' business."

"heheheheh… well, just get to hung up over her, she is press, remember."

"I'm sure that if I forget, you'll remind me." Davis said acidly.

=============================================================

"So, they reckon I'm gonna make full recovery."

"Not bad, considering you were shot in the head." Kari replied.

"Hey! It wasn't IN the head. Just along it."

Kari rolled her eyes.

"Yes, and a bullet in the vicinity of your brain…"

"That's not where I keep my brain."

"TK!"

"Sorry, sorry."

"God, you're so immature."

"I know, but that what you love about me, right."

Kari fixed him with a look.

"Don't start. We sorted that out years ago."

"Must be the short term memory loss. I don't remember sorting anything out."

"Like I said, don't start."

"Alright, alright."

"Must be the fact that you're around Davis again. You two always enjoyed your little sparring matches."

"Heh, probably. Why hasn't he been to see me yet, anyway?"

"He's busy helping Joe repair the helicopter."

"Ah. Tell him to get his worthless ass in here when he's done, wouldya?" 

"Sure."

"And how do you feel about being around him again?"

She paused.

"C'mon, Kari, you always told me this stuff. You still like him?"

"I haven't seen him in three years."

TK waved a dismissive hand.

"Well… I'm not sure. Sorta. But he's a different person now."

"Well, he would be. I was talking to Jenny earlier, and she was telling me some of his recent exploits."

"Like?"

TK paused.

"Well… a little while ago, his was working in a mountain region in China. There was an armed dispute there as well, and a huge amount of action going on, because a civilian company had found out that the government was dumping a huge amount of chemicals form its weapons factory into the water supply. The AR team was using a Chinook heavy transport helicopter at the time – you know, the ones with two rotors?"

Kari nodded. 

"I've seen them."

"Well, those thing scan carry a large amount of people, and Davis caught wind that the government were planning to blanket bomb the area. No evidence, no foul, ya see? Well, our Davis, being his usual self, ignored an order to get out of the country, and instead headed up into the mountains in the chopper to evacuate as many people as possible over the border. He got a huge number of people out, under the bombing raids the whole time."

"Woah."

"Yeah, that's what I thought. Seems to have given him something of a wildcard reputation in the AR. He's ended up getting sent to most of the major trouble spots, because he gets the job done."

"He always did."

"Yup. So go talk to him. What have you got to lose?"

=============================================================

Kari sat down next to Davis as the pilot lounged on a deckchair outside on the covered patio. Despite the rain, the temperature was still pleasant, and she gladly accepted the beer he offered her.

"So…"

"So…"

they glanced at each other, and laughed.

"I… wanted to talk to you about what you've been doing the past three years."

He gave her a perceptive glance.

"Oh, someone's been carrying tales, have they?"

She met him with a level gaze.

"Something like that."

"THANK you, Jenny." Davis said loudly.

A small curse sounded from inside the kitchen. Davis laughed.

"She told TK about what you did in the Chinese mountains. I gather you're something of the hero."

The smile faded from his face.

"And I gather that she's telling a story that she doesn't know all of."

=============================================================

Veemon and Gatomon were walking through the kitchen, when they heard Davis and Kari's voices outside. By some form of mutual consent, they stopped and listened. After all, these people were their partners, so it wasn't REALLY eavesdropping. It was when Veemon heard the story Davis was telling, that he swore under his breath, and realised why Jenny had been leaving the kitchen in such a hurry.

"What's wrong?" Gatomon whispered.

"Just listen."

=============================================================

Davis popped the tab on his beer, and took a long gulp. Despite the fact that it was early in the morning, he seemed determined to knock it back quickly. Kari raised an eyebrow, as Davis stared down into the can, his stern face seeming to want to penetrate the liquid itself like a looking glass.

"I'm no hero, Kari." He said quietly. "Sure, I went on that mission, but not out of any form of ideals. I just had to get those people out of there. That's my job. I was on my third run when the government started their bombing runs. Nevertheless, I decided to carry on trying to get people out. "

He sighed.

"The Chinook was half full, and I decided to drop those people off before I headed back for the final load. There was one village left on the map, and even though I had the room, I didn't want to cram them all together like sardines. So I headed back over the mountains with an empty cargo hold, and headed as fast as I could for the village."

He closed his eyes.

"I was too late. The government had heard what I was doing, and had sent a single heavy fighter out, loaded with two FlareStar missiles. You know what they are?"

She shook her head.

"They're a kind of missile that acts like the old napalm bombs you see on the newsreels of the Vietnam war. Even as I was the village, preparing to land, I saw this fighter coming in, and I saw the missiles detach. For some reason, the guy had his weapons guidance systems set in air-attack mode, and he locked straight onto me. All I saw, was those two streaks of flame heading towards me, and all I heard was the warning tones in my headphones. Danny wasn't with me on that run, because there had been too many casualties back at base. Well, I acted as they'd taught me, ditching countermeasures like rain and pulling away. But because I was so low over the ground, my countermeasures went straight down into the village."

He laughed a hollow laugh.

"God, it must have been the first time in history when both missiles were fooled by the countermeasures at close range. The followed them straight into the centre of the village, and blew up there, spraying liquid fire everywhere, setting fire to the houses 'cos they weren't much more than wooden huts. The fighter bugged out almost immediately. His job was done. Well, I got the chopper down somehow, even though I don't remember doing it, and leapt out like a bat out of hell."

He opened his eyes again, and she could see the agony in them, knowing away at his soul she cursed herself for subjecting him to this.

"And there was this little girl. I knew her, because I'd been teaching her Japanese. Kid was a fuckin' genius, a real child prodigy, and she;d have had a shot at a decent school if she was bi-lingual. I used tot ake her old schoolbooks an dstuff we picke dup in the city. I grabbed her from the fire. Everyone else was dead, but she'd been collecting water from the well to help with the cooking. I got her turned over and…" he took a deep breath. "Half of her face was melted away, Kari. Just burnt clean away by the napalm. And she looked up at me from her one eye, and you know what she said? "Thankyou for coming, Motomiya-sempai." After I'd been the one who caused the death of her entire family, she was thanking me for coming to help her. She passed out there in my arms."

He swigged back the last of the beer, and crushed the can in his hand.

"Well, I don't know how the hell I made it back to our base across the border, but I do know they had to drag me out of the helicopter. I was desperately trying to get the kid back to the hospital. She lived for another week before her lungs gave out. I hadn't known it, but they'd been burnt as well. Twenty-five people, Kari, dead because of me."

He tossed the crushed can into the bin in the kitchen.

"I didn't find out until afterwards, because I'd gone straight into the psychiatric ward of the hospital. They were amazed I'd even made it back as far as the border. I was there for six weeks, and I was screaming my lungs out for most of that time. Veemon was the only one who was there the whole time, because the rest of the team were trying to pick up the pieces. I'd gone in there against orders, you see, so technically, I'd violated international law. The AR head offices backed me up to the hilt, saying it was an official action. Even falsified records to make it look so. They had to go through a six-month investigation because of me. They didn't mind, of course. In a way, they were kinda proud of me. Cant think why. After I got out of the hospital, they handed me a cushy assignment, working in the US for a few months. I turned it down, and cooled my heels for a month or so. I visited that little girls grave every day through that time, and I think that's part of what kept me sane. I had to accept what had happened. Even the office told me it wasn't really my fault, and that any other pilot would have reacted in the same way. I even tried telling it to myself, but it didn't wash one inch. I'd fucked up, and it had cost those people their lives. 

Then they handed use an assignment working the India-Pakistan border villages. I snapped it up immediately. Heh, I started taking risks. I know what you're thinking – I was trying to get myself killed, but you're wrong. I was trying to… I dunno, absolve my sins. I thought that placing myself in danger would in some way pay for what I'd done. It was a coupla months later when I went back to visit the grave of that little girl, that I met the priest. He'd been the man who tailored for the spiritual needs of all the little villages in that area, since they didn't warrant a priest each. He knew me, of course, and we got to talking. I told him what had happened, and what I'd been doing since. He told me that the spirits of those people didn't blame me, because they knew I'd been trying to help them. He said that he thought the little girl was watching over me, because she loved me for trying to help her. That man saved me. We still call each other from time to time. And I do believe that she is watching over me. My own little guardian angel."

He screwed up his eyes, and began to cry. Kari wordlessly moved over, and wrapped her arms around him. He pushed her gently away.

"I'm a fucking screw-up, Kari. That's all I am. I'm no hero."

"No. you're one of the bravest people I know."

The tears came faster, and turned quickly into a torrent of misery. This time, he didn't do anything when Kari hugged him, except bury his howls in her shoulder. 

=============================================================

Gatomon stared at Veemon in stunned silence. The little blue Digimon leaned back against the wall.

"So now you know."

=============================================================

(A/N)

Well, I said I might do another chapter, and it was a real doozey, wasn't it. Like I said at the start, there are reasons that I rated this fic an R, and this will merely be the first of them.

How the hell I'm gonna follow this one up is beyond me.

-Ben.


	8. Chapter 8

Chapter 8.

********

Gradually, Davis's sobs subsided, and he sat back onto his own lounger.

"I'm… sorry."

"What for? I'm the one who got you to tell the story in the first place."

"Yeah, but you're the enemy, aren't you?"

He gave her a slight grin, and stood. 

"I'm not gonna lie to you about that, Kari. What I told you was the truth. I screwed up."

"You saved more people than got killed, Davis."

"I know. It doesn't bring back the ones who died, though." 

"Nothing will. I guess… I guess you've got to learn to live with it."

"Oh, I have. Doesn't stop me thinking about it, however."

Kari returned the small smile he offered her.

"Nothing will, and it shouldn't either. We learn from our mistakes, Davis."

"Maybe."

He leaned against a support post of the awning, and fished a cigarette out of his pocket. Kari looked at the packet.

"I didn't know you smoked."

"I don't. These are for special occasions"

He lit the smoke, and took a long draw. Letting the smoke out, he watched the blueish haze drift out into the rain.

"Only a few people know what I just told you, Kari, and even they don't know the full version. Jenny knows more than she told you, and Danny knows the gist of it. Veemon is the only other person who knows what really happened." He gave a slight laugh, "heh, guess I opened my soul to you."

"Guess so. Why did you start flying again? I'd have thought…"

"That I wouldn't want to get back in a cockpit again? I came close. But I realised that if I didn't get back into the pilots seat, then I'd have let the fear of screwing up win. It isn't fear of flying – I've never been afraid of or in any aircraft in my life – it's the fear that I was gonna get more people killed."

"Hmm."

She stood, and walked over to stand next to him.

"I guess… you are who you are?"

"Very profound. And it means?"

"That all these experiences have shaped who you've become. You've turned into someone who's willing to lay his life on the line for other people, Davis, and that's not something everyone can do. You've grown a lot more… mature since I last saw you."

"Thanks. I think."

"Anytime."

She grinned.

"Oh, and TK said for you to haul your worthless ass in and see him. His words, not mine."

"I gathered. I'll go see him now. Where's my shotgun…"

"Davis!"

"I kid, I kid!"

He turned and headed into the house.

"Later."

"Yeah, later."

Kari watched him walk in, and turned to look back into the rain. Yes, Davis had changed and part of it was for the better whilst he'd now take risks, he wouldn't let them interfere with his goals. The boyish Davis Motomiya she'd used to know had been washed away to reveal the steel core underneath, the strength he'd drawn on to lead the digidestined, and now he was wearing it on his sleeve. She pitied anyone who got in his way.

=============================================================

TK glanced up from the book he was reading at the sound of a knock on the door. 

"Oh. Its you."

Davis grinned, and walked in.

"Hey man, how are you?"

"Well, aside from groove in my skull and the two holes in my head, absolutely fine, you?"

"The Psychological problems are pretty irritating, but other than that…"

"Oh good. Nice to know we're still normal."

"Normalities way too boring for us."

"Amen."

TK marked his page in the book, and placed it on the bedside table.

"So, I here you're quite the accomplished person."

"Not really." Davis said.

TK noted the tone in his old friend's voice, and decided not to press any further. Davis would tell him if he wanted to, and if he didn't, he'd just get the info out of Kari later.

"I got a copy of the _Oracle a while back. You've got a fair few by-lines in it."_

TK shrugged slightly.

"It happens. I just got what I wanted out of a career."

"Heh."

"Did you?"

"Guess I did."

"You don't sound too sure."

"We all have those moments."

=============================================================

Danny found Jenny idly flicking through the TV channels in the lounge.

"Heya."

"Hnn." Jenny grunted back at him. Danny rolled his eyes.

"So what's up?"

"You know, in all the time I've been here, I haven't been able to find one channel that doesn't have some woman's arse plastered across the screen."

"An interesting fact, but blatantly not what's really bothering you." He replied.

Jenny threw down the remote, and looked across at him.

"IS it any of your goddamn business what's bothering me, Brown?"

"Maybe, maybe not." He shrugged. "But I won't know until you tell me."

"I set Davis up."

"Huh?"

"Kari was gonna get around to talking to him eventually, so I set him up so he'd have to talk about… that time."

"That wasn't particularly smart of you."

"I know."

"Why?"

"Why what?"

"Why did you do it? Don't think me so stupid I thought you did it without a reason."

Jenny stared silently at the TV screen for a minute, and then continued.

"Because… I guess… I like a fair competition."

"Competition?"

"Don't act dumb, Danny. Unless you're blind, you can see how I feel about Davis."

He hadn't known, and the wrench that pulled inside his heart was almost unbearable. He suppressed it hard, and kept the look of interest on his face. Jenny continued.

"So… if I had known, and Kari hadn't, it would have been unfair, you see what I mean?"

"I… guess."

She stood, and headed for the door.

"I'm going for a walk. I'll catch you later."

"Yeah. See you." 

And then she was gone. Danny continued to stare into nothing, a great emptiness gnawing at his heart.

=============================================================

Davis was lying in his room, staring at the ceiling, when a knock on the door jolted him from his thoughts.

"C'mon in."

Jenny pushed open the door, and smiled at him.

"Heya."

"Hi. Have a seat."

She sat down on the room's only chair, kicking a football magazine under the bed as she went. Davis sat up, and leaned against the headboard, grabbing at the can of beer as he went.

"How many of those have you had this morning?"

"Lay off, Jenny."

"No, tell me."

"It's only my third, and it's my last, I'll have you know."

"I should bloody hope so."

"Thanks. Did you come in here to say something constructive, or just to nag?"

"I came in to apologise."

"For what?"

"For getting you to talk about…" she paused.

"To talk about my big fuck-up? Why does everyone see to feel the need to tiptoe around it?"

"Because we're worried that we'll have to lock you up in a padded room?"

"A valid worry, but an unneeded one. I'm not gonna go psycho anytime soon."

"You sure?"

He looked at her.

"Yes. Why?"

"I know you haven't been sleeping too well lately."

He grinned slightly.

"Another valid point. But I'm still not gonna go psycho. That's not to say I don't spend a fair amount of time staring into the darkness these days."

"You can't put it behind you, can you?"

"I probably could if I wanted. But I don't want to."

He leaned back, his eyes becoming unfocused.

"I can still here them, Jenny. I can hear their voices like they're right next to me. They want me to keep going, to keep doing what I think is right. One day though, I'm gonna be in a situation like that, and I'm not gonna fuck up again. This time I'm gonna get it right. I'm gonna let those voices rest, knowing that what happened to them wont happen again."

He laughed.

"Jesus, I do sound like a psycho, don't I? Well, maybe those voices are in my head, Jenny, but I've seen too much weird shit over the years to disregard the existence of ghosts. After all, I've got my little guardian angel."

Jenny smiled.

"I guess you do. But anyway, I wanted to apologise for manoeuvring you into telling Kari about what happened."

"Not really a problem. I'd probably have told her anyway."

Jenny felt a pang of jealousy.

"Oh?"

"Kari's one of my oldest friends, and I trust her one hell of a lot."

"More than you trust us?"

"Nope. But then, I don't have to tell you the story, do I?"

Jenny's mind flashed back to a day two years ago, when she had looked into a padded cell and seen a man she knew and cared a great deal about slamming his head against the wall and screaming the contents of his lungs out, the tears streaming down his face and a small blue Digimon sitting nearby, watching over him.

"I guess you don't, at that."

They sat in silence for a couple of minutes, as Davis drank from his beer can. Jenny was the first to break the deadlock.

"Davis… I…"

Veemon burst through the door.

"All hands on deck! We've just got an emergency call through the squawk box. A girl in one of our regular villages got premature on us."

Davis leapt to his feet. 

"I'm on it. Jenny, can you find Danny? 

"Sure."

"Veemon, go get Graham."

"Got it." 

"See you outside."

=============================================================

"What do you mean I can't come with you?" Jenny snarled.

Graham stood unmoved in the face of his daughter's wrath.

"We need you to stay here and keep TK under observation. I'm sure I can manage one premature birth on my own, Jenny."

"Bullshit!"

"Watch your language, young lady."

The young nurse looked at the cockpit, where she could see Danny and Davis failing to suppress their laughter.

"And you two can shut up and all."

She strode back towards the base, swearing violently as she went.

"Graham, you are SO gonna pay for that." Davis said.

"I know. That's part of the fun."

The lynx's rotors wound up to speed, and the helicopter took to the air, steaming away south.

=============================================================

On a sun drench patio, far to the east, a man was reading the paper. As he looked at the main story, he sighed in disgust. Politicians, Max Sanchez thought, how much better the world would be without them.

The drug baron glanced up as one of his underlings made his way onto the patio. He gestured for his second in command, Paulo Santiago, to sit and pour himself a juice.

"What news?"

"To put it simply, sir, we don't stand a chance in hell of getting anywhere near that drug convoy. Its one of the few things that both the government and the rebels agree on, but they don't want those pure drugs to fall into our hands. They're guarding them religiously."

"What about taking them from the Air Relief team themselves."

"So far, all attempts have failed. Daisuke Motomiya and his companions may not look like much, but they're smart. They can outwit just about anyone sent against them."

"I want you to concentrate all your efforts on this, Paulo. I must have those supplies."

"Yes sir."

=============================================================

(a/n) 

well, that makes an… interesting follow up to the last chapter. Sorry if it didn't live up to it, but there were only so many places I could go from there.

Also, apologies for the lateness of this chapter, but I managed to pull a muscle in my left arm last week, and that slowed my writing somewhat.

I've noticed, however, that I don't usually say much about other writers in my fics, so here's a new feature that'll get you all happy! 

***

WRITER PLUG:

Anthony! 

This guy is one of the few people who's managed to review just about every chapter of every one of my fics, so he deserves first plug! Go visit his profile, because he writes some damn good daikari's including his current one, a samurai-period AU. Go check him out!

***

Before I forget, I'm rebuilding the links page on my site. If you want a link from me, or if you're already linking TOO me, please Email me and let me know.

And because I'm here, VISIT MY DAMN FORUMS AND SIGN UP, CONFLABBIT!

Also, take a look at Otak-UK online anime magazine (). I cant guarantee the quality of some of the stuff, though, because its by me.


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9: 

********

The helicopter swooped in low over the village as Davis scouted the ground for a suitable place to land. 

"How soon do you reckon she's gonna pop, doc?" he asked into his microphone.

"Do you have to be so crude?"

"Yes. Yes I do. How soon?"

"From what I gather on the radio, she was close already."

"In that case I'll go for the main square and deal with the village elders afterwards."

He levelled off, and began to lower the aircraft into position. Even as he descended, her heard the first _whip-crack_ sound of thunder in the air, and heard the rattling of rain against the cockpit. He swore, and then relaxed as the lynx's skids touched into place. He leapt out of the cockpit, and opened the door for Graham and Thompson. The pair took out the medical box, and headed off in the direction of the towns small clinic. Davis cursed under his breath as he saw one of the village's elders heading towards him. The man stopped and bowed slightly.

"I thank you for coming, sir." He said politely.

"Nice to be here. Look, if it's about the placing of the helicopter…"

"It's fine where it is."

Davis's surprise must have shown on his face. The elder shrugged.

"No-one will be coming out to the well in this weather anyway. I came to offer you shelter at the tavern." 

Davis glanced over at Danny, who nodded.

"That'd be nice. We'll be over once we secure the chopper."

=============================================================

Jenny kicked the surgery door. Noting that she put a dent in it, she kicked it again. Unfortunately, all she achieved the second time round was a feeling of numbness in her toe.

"Pile of bloody bollocks." She muttered. "Doesn't need me out there, he says, gotta take care of TK, he says. What a complete pile of shite!"

Kari looked around the door.

"Well, you look happy."

"Does it show?"

"Just that little bit." The Japanese woman glanced down at the door. "And I think it'll show for quite a while, actually."

"I don't appreciate being left behind."

"So I gathered. Veemon just told me we've got heavy weather coming in, and he needs all of us to help secure stuff."

"Figures."

=============================================================

Davis slugged back the coke as if it were a beer, and deeply wished it was a beer. But he'd told Jenny that the last one he'd had at the base was all he'd have today, and he meant to stick to it. Danny glanced sideways at his friend over his own drink.

"You alright, mate?"

"Yes, I'm alright. Yes, I was also fine talking to Kari about what happened, and no, its not gonna push me into psychosis."

"Given how I literally only meant if you're alright, I'd say you're already in a state of psychosis."

"Hnn." Davis grunted in reply.

"Davis?"

"Yeah?"

"How do you feel about Jenny?"

Davis's glass froze halfway to his lips.

"Is this one of those questions where the answer is going to either be incredibly important, open a huge can of worms, or both?"

"Yup."

"Oh. Just checking. Jenny's one of my best friends, Danny."

"You know she…"

"Oh yeah, I know. I'm not blind."

"Bloody hell, am I the only one who DIDN'T notice?"

"Probably."

"Did you notice that I…?"

"Yup. That ones still our secret, though."

"Thanks."

"What's still a secret?"

Graham walked in through the tavern door, Thompson at his shoulder.

"That was quick." Davis remarked.

"We were only in for the home run. Can I get a beer?"

The Bartender slid it over without a word, and waved away the doctor's proffered payment. Graham smiled at the man, and took a long drink.

"Difficult?"

"Premature ones always are. More difficult than usual, I mean."

"Of course."

"Well, the problem was…"

"Graham, I'm not a doctor, and being male these details make me squeamish, so please don't tell me."

Thompson laughed, and cuffed Davis across the back of the neck.

"As soon as you guys finish, we'd better start making our way back. The weather isn't looking too promising."

=============================================================

Veemon, meanwhile, was swearing vigorously into the microphone of the radio back at the Air Relief base. Using a mixture of Japanese and what Portuguese he's picked up since he arrived in Rosastan (With a couple of Cantonese phrases thrown in for good measure) he was deriding Davis and Danny's mental ability, parentage, gender and sexual functionality with uncanny ability.

"So where the hell is he?" Jenny asked in one of the few moments when Veemon stopped to catch his breath.

"Knowing that retarded asshole, the nearest pub." The little Digimon replied.

Jenny nodded. It fitted that Davis would take shelter in a tavern; although in fairness usually the villagers opened the taverns services to the AR team as soon as they saw the helicopter on the horizon. 

"Hopefully, he won't be dumb enough to try his luck in this weather."

"He doesn't know how bad it is. We only got the flash report after they took off. On top of that, all we've got between that village and here is forty miles of solid foliage. There's nowhere to put down if he gets into trouble. Which he will."

Kari appeared in the doorway, dressed in battered jeans and t-shirt. Gatomon and Patomon were hot on her tail. Veemon turned to them.

"Alright, here's what we do. We close up every entrance except the one to the helipad, and we brace the awning against the weather. Other than that, we'll have to wing it. Kari, there's a box of flares in the supply room down the hall. Can you bring it to the kitchen?"

"Sure."

"Jenny, we've got maybe thirty minutes until the storm breaks. After Kari's got the flares, we're gonna have to secure everything outside that could be damaged. We're also gonna have to bring in all the fuel drums."

"Roger that."

"Patomon, can you monitor the radio? Keep trying to call up the helicopter."

"But…"

"It's not rocket science, buddy, and I don't have the time to argue with you."

Patomon hesitated, but nodded.

"Good man. Callsign is AR-one. Frequencies all punched in, so just keep trying to get them on call."

"Got it."

"Gatomon. You come with me."

The cat Digimon just stood there. Veemon looked at her.

"Look, Gatomon, four very close friends of mine are in that helicopter, and if we don't do something, their lives will be put at risk. I don't have the time to fuck around, so let's get moving, people!"

Gatomon didn't say anything, but nodded as she followed him out of the door. He grabbed an equipment box as he went.

"So what are we doing, Veemon?"

"We're gonna fix a signal booster to the aerial on the roof. Hopefully, it'll mean they'll still be able to pick up our radio messages through the storm."

"Do you always push people around like that?"

"If you're gonna lecture me, go back inside. I've got more important things to do, and this is an emergency situation."

He strode up some steps into a small loft area, and fuming silently, she followed. Reaching to the side, he fixed a tethered belt around his waist. He gestured for her to take the other one.

"Veemon, the day I need help staying on the ground is the day you grow some manners."

"Suit yourself."

The small blue Digimon pushed open the roof hatch. A gust of icy wind blew in, rattling the tools on the shelves, and pushing Gatomon back, even in the sheltered recesses of the loft. Veemon strode out, carrying the toolbox. Swearing virulently, Gatomon fixed on the belt, and followed. The wind cut straight through her fur, and came close to pushing her off the roof.

"Keep the belt taut!" Veemon yelled. "I don't have the time to pull you back up if you fall!"

Gatomon nodded, and pressed the wind catch on her belt. The snap of it going taut yanked her back an inch, until she began to pull against it towards her friend. Veemon was kneeling by the roof aerial, waiting for her. He pushed the toolbox against her legs.

"Keep this from falling!"

"Is that all I have to do?"

"For the moment!"

He took out a small piece of electronic equipment, and opened the panel on the signal box at the base of the aerial. The wind intensified around them, a howling demon clawing at the sky. Veemon slotted the circuit board into place, and began to screw the panel back on. He had just got it closed when a gust of wind took him by surprise, and sent him careening down the sloped roof to the ground, Gatomon dived after him.

"Leave me! I'll just drop and go in the door! Finish setting up the booster!"

"What do I have to do?"

"Pull the fuse from the control panel on the side, reset the power to the aerial, and put the fuse back in!"

"Got it!"

She pushed against the wind back to the aerial. Opening the panel, she pulled the big fuse from its housing. Reaching forward, she pressed the reset button. The lights flickering on and off rewarded her efforts, ad she put the fuse back in. the main power light stuttered into life, and she closed the panel.

"I did it Veemon!"

"Good, get back inside! I'll meet you in there! Don't forget the damn toolbox!"

"Right!"

She grabbed the box, and went back into the roof hatch. Down in the Radio room, a slightly battered Veemon was waiting for her.

"Nice work. How's it going, Patomon?"

The little pig-dog stuck out a paw, and waggled it in a so-so motion.

"That pretty much sums up the entire day."

"Heh."

Jenny and Kari came in from outside, looking for all intents and purposes like a pair of drowned rats.

"You sorted?"

"Yeah. And I dosed TK up pretty good as well."

Patomon started.

"Huh?"

"He'd only be in the way if he tried to help, Patomon. I've sedated him enough so that he'll sleep through the storm. He needs the rest anyways."

"…fine."

"Alright," Veemon said. "The next jobs the real important one. We're gonna break out the RAST gear."

Jenny raised an eyebrow.

"That bad?"

"Worse. Its gonna be tough whatever we do."

"Figures. I'll go get the jackets."

"What's RAST?" Kari asked.

"Recovery Assistance Securing and Transversing. Basically, the helicopter drops a line to us, and we winch it in from the air. It means the chopper can keep its engine's flared against the tension. Only one problem."

"What?"

"It's meant for use on Navy battleships. The land-based variants never been used in an actual situation before."

"Oh. Great."

Veemon glanced at them.

"Right. Now this episode of "Get to know the _Nadesico_" is over, can we get moving?"

And they would have done just that, except for the fact that the radio crackled into life at that moment.

"AR-one to base, AR-one to base, come back!"

Patomon grabbed the microphone, and flipped the send switch.

"AR-one this is base, we read you!"

"Patomon? What the hell are you doing on the radio?"

"Never mind that. Veemon tells me you're to prep for a RAST recovery, over."

Even though Davis wasn't sending, they could FEEL him swearing at the other end of the line. When he came back on, his voice was filled with anguish.

"Copy, Base. We're inbound in around fifteen."

"Roger that, AR-one, over and out."

Veemon nodded at the smaller Digimon. 

"Nice work. Now comes the fun part."

"What?"

"We're gonna go recruit some members of the Rosastan army."

=============================================================

The lynx came in low over the base, and took up a holding position about fifty feet above the helipad. Inside, Davis and Danny battled to keep the aircraft level. The wind, which was battering at ground level, was lethal up in the air, and the helicopter wasn't so much hovering as it was flying forward at the same pace as the wind. Below him, he saw four flares spark into incandescent existence on the ground. 

Danny hit the winch release button, and the RAST cable began to lower out of the side of the insectoid machine.

Davis glanced out. A short while ago, he'd told a lady that he wasn't afraid of or in any aircraft in his life. That wasn't entirely true. 

All airmen feared the weather. The wind, rain and thunder didn't give a damn how good you thought you were – they'd still smash you into the ground with the bland indifference of a man squashing a bug.

=============================================================

Kari pulled the trigger on the oversized nail gun, firing the huge ten-inch bolts into the ground and securing the RAST winch in place. She nodded her thanks to the Rosastanian soldier who had helped her, and placed the gun in the shelter of the porch. Some more of the troopers ran, carrying the power cable, to the plug in point on the generator. Shielding the connector points from the rain, they plugged the winch into the big machine, and gave her the thumbs up. Jenny, Veemon and even more soldiers were waiting for the line to reach them, and as it did, they grabbed it and pulled it over to the winch, feeding it into the machine. A couple of revolutions later, and the line was firmly pulling in, dragging the helicopter out of the sky. 

Kari watched as the aircrafts lights danced in the swirling rain.

=============================================================

Davis flared the helicopters engines, pulling back against the tension of the line, as Danny activated the winch retraction on the line, adding its power to the RAST winches.

"I think we're gonna make it, mate!"

"Amen to that!"

Then the helicopter gave an almighty wrench.

The Pilot and co-pilot glanced at each other.

"What the hell was that?"

=============================================================

The big generator in the compound sputtered, and began to skip its beats. Kari and Jenny looked at each other. And then up as the helicopter wrenched at the end of its line.

"Oh… shit…"

The generator died, and with it the winch on the ground. As the chopper's engines pulled against it the cable tore free, catching a soldier who had dived for it as it left the ground. Jenny dived, and got the man out of the way as Kari looked up to where the helicopter's lights danced erratically off into the rain, like a kite with a broken string.

=============================================================

(A/n)

I am IMMENSELY sorry for the lateness of this chapter. Please believe me when I say that in some ways it couldn't be helped. Unfortunately, reality chose the past coupla weeks to catch up with me, and give me a brutal beating. I've had two pieces of coursework to get in, along with another essay that I couldn't put off, and a third piece of coursework to start. It's kinda given me a kicking in terms of stuff I'd wanted to do. I actually did intend to get this chapter last week, but it seems that the person I baby-sit for had a lot of stuff going on, and my media studies teachers decided to choose that week to schedule all their school trips. I also had to get in all my articles for otak-uk, the online anime magazine that, since I'm the editor, I couldn't really blow off. It just figures that the guy who's our web-editor is out the country, so I could have left it anyways? ^_^;;

Okay, I also admit that I had been spending far too much time playing an online game called Quantum SE as well. ^_^;; but as Rialisis will tell you if you ask him, I've decided to retire from that to further concentrate on my writing. I'm also DETERMINED to set up my personal site in the next coupla weeks. And speaking of Rialisis, he earns himself a

AUTHOR PLUG

This week.

Rialisis' FFnet name is that of Bodrj, a demented metalhead (well, less demented than me, actually) Daikari writer, and a good for poetry, original fiction etc. in the meantime, here are some web address, which I can't put as links because FFnet wont let me. Go My livejournal, where generally you can catch up on the progress of the chapter for the week. Normally.

www.otak-uk.co.uk: Otak-uk online anime magazine. Articles, reviews, fanfiction and fanart. I'm the editor, and Rialisis is one of the writers.

mooseofdoom.proboards10.com: the forums for my website. Please take a look and join up, if you enjoy talking about Digimon, anime and any other random stuff.


	10. Chapter 10

Chapter 10:

********

Danny looked out of the window at the swirling maelstrom below, at the splintered cable as it trailed behind them.

"We are so screwed."

=============================================================

Veemon picked up the radio headset, and slipped it on.

"AR base to AR-one, come back?"

Davis's tired voice rose from the speakers.

"AR-one, copy. Looks like that plan went out the window."

"Roger that, AR-one. We can confirm that the RAST gear is damaged beyond immediate repair."

"What happened?"

"The generator gave out, and the winch stopped. With your engines flaring you pulled straight back out."

"Damn. I don't think we're gonna get back down tonight."

"Bull. If all else fails, you can execute a controlled crash."

"Negative on that, if we bust a fuel cell, the whole compound'll go up. My call, Veemon."

The little blue Digimon began swearing.

"Enough of that. We'll have to make a run for the nearest outpost."

"You don't have the fuel!"

"I can stretch it."

"Hold station, AR-one." He clicked off the channel, and turned to the others. "He'll never make it."

"Well, what's he supposed to do?" Jenny demanded.

"If I'm gonna stand a chance, I gotta leave now, base!" Davis said.

"Continue to hold station, AR-one!"

"I don't have the fuel to fuck around here, base, I have to leave!"

"Negative on that!"

"What's the pulling power on that half-track?" Kari said suddenly.

They turned to look at her. She was looking speculatively at the armoured vehicle at the Rosastan outpost. Veemon rattled the question off in Portuguese to a nearby soldier.

"About 30 tons."

Kari grinned suddenly. 

"I know how we can get them down. Have you got any metal ground hooks – like the ones you get to attach parking locks to the ground?"

"Yeah, we use them to secure equipment, why?"

Kari told them.

=============================================================

"Davis, we've got a plan!" Veemon's voice came over the radio.

"Shoot."

"We're gonna tow you down."

Danny and Davis exchanged looks.

"Say again, Veemon?"

"Listen, we don't have much of a Window. The military half track is gonna act like a RAST winch, and we're gonna tow you down through a couple of sec-hooks in the ground."

"Give us a second."

He turned off the send button and looked over at Danny.

"So what do you think?"

"Sounds better than a rainy night in the jungle, mate."

"Alright then." He toggled the radio controls. "Veemon, we copy. Lets go for it."

"Roger that!"

=============================================================

For the second time that night, a coil of wire extended from the belly of the lynx helicopter, sliding through the rain towards them. Kari watched as it hit the ground, and was one of the four people who leapt forward, numbed hands scrabbling at the earth as the bitterly cold rain lashed her face.

Between them, they manhandled the cable over to the loops, an threaded it through, before tying it to the rear bumper of the half-track. The big vehicle gunned its engine, and leapt forward, coming up fast when it ran out of slack.

Kari looked up at the chopper.

"Be careful, Davis…"

As Jenny looked over at her, she could see the far away look in the other woman's eyes, and felt a twist of Jealousy in her stomach. She pushed, and lit the flare in her hand, waving it back and forth.

=============================================================

"There's the signal! Start reeling her in, Danny!"

Danny didn't give any reply other than switching on the winch controls, and turning it over to manual feed. With the controller in his hand, he carefully begin to reel in the line from the helicopter to the ground.

=============================================================

The half-track's wheels squealed in protest as the armoured vehicle threw itself into its task. Over her headset, Kari could hear the driver snarling in a mixture of Portuguese and English, coaxing those extra couple of revs out of the straining engine. The lynx began to sink from the sky, tethered at last to a force as resolutely stubborn as its own. Raising her hand to shield her face from the rain for a couple of seconds, she continued to stare at the aircraft.

Kari Kamiya had never been a religious woman, but she was sure as hell praying now.

=============================================================

Davis snarled a series of curses as he struggled to keep the bucking aircraft stable, the words an angry litany at his situation. He felt the power slacken slightly.

"Starting to get water in the fuel tanks." Danny noted casually.

"I know." 

Lift loss too. The water must be making the rotor bearing slip. Every so often there was that little surge and fade of power, and he was having to work the throttle carefully to compensate.

He glanced out of the side window as the wing battered the helicopter to the side. The ground couldn't have been more that thirty feet away by now. He continued the slow descent. He could see Jenny now, the flare in her hand illuminating her pretty face. He snarled at the aircraft as it tried to spin out of control.

"Keep it together you crank-tailed bitch!"

gently, slowly, he eased off the throttle, allowing the half-track to tug him the last couple of feet to the ground. The skids touched down, and he slammed the door open.

"Engine off! Rotor brake, on!"

"All systems shutting down!"

"Lets get the fuck outta this thing!"

"Amen to that!" Graham replied from where he had been keeping silent in the back compartment.

The four men dived out of the helicopter as the wind picked up again, and the half-track cut its engines.

=============================================================

Kari watched as Davis and the group left the helicopter, and started towards them. Picking up a heavy tie-down buckle, she ran over to them, as the helicopter began to slide across the pad. Davis picked up another one of the straps, and was running after the chopper. After what they'd just been through he was damned if he was gonna let his aircraft kill itself on the ground. He dropped, and slid along the tarmac as he'd slid along the football pitch when he'd still played, and snapped one end of the buckle to the hook on the belly of the chopper. He slammed the other end around one of the secure-hooks in the ground.

The aircraft came up short, its momentum halted.

All that Kari could remember of the next few cold-and-wet hazed minutes were brief flashes of Davis's face, as he, Danny and the Rosastan soldiers worked around the aircraft, securing it from the cold. She felt Jenny's hand on her shoulder, and the door into the house seemed a million miles away.

=============================================================

Davis finished locking down the aircraft, and turned to the commander of the Rosastan troops who stood alongside him.

"Many thanks, my friend."

"You're most welcome, sir. But I'm not the one you should be thanking."

"What do you mean?"

"I'd given you up for lost after the RAST line carried away."

"You weren't the only one."

"But that Japanese lady, she didn't give up. She figured out how to get you down, and come up with the idea of using the half-track. She's the one you should be thanking."

"Kari? She didn't give up?"

"Not for a single second."

"Sounds like her. But I thank you anyway. You might want to get your men inside the hospital area – your camp isn't too stable."

"Of course. Will you provide treatment for my man who got lashed by the cable."

"Certainly."

He headed for the door, his t-shirt plastered to his chest by the rain, and he realised how cold he was. He headed for the kitchen, and took a bottle of brandy from the cupboard, before knocking back a quick slug. The warming effect of the liquor spread through his system, and he took the bottle with him as he went out into the corridor.

What he found there was pretty much the entire Rosastan army patrol that had been based at the bottom of their driveway. He passed the bottle to the nearest soldier.

"Pass it along.  Have a slug each – it'll warm you up."

The soldier nodded gratefully, before necking from the bottle. Davis proceeded off down the hall. He bumped into Thompson along the way.

"What's the damage to the chopper."

"Cant tell right now. I'll take a look in the morning, but I'd guess that the fuel system'll need some checking out."

"Great."

Veemon tramped out from a side room, and leapt up to Davis's shoulder.

"Thought we'd lost you for a minute."

"You weren't the only one." He raised his hand, and looked at it critically. "Jesus, I haven't had a case of the shakes like this in years." 

Absently, he reached inside his pocket for a cigarette, and swore as he felt the drenched box. He tossed the packet into the trashcan. And nodded as one of the soldiers offered him a dry one. He lit up, and smiled gratefully. The man grinned back and laughed. Davis continued off down the hall, his Digimon perched on his shoulder.

"How did you handle things back here?"

"I covered most of it, but when the RAST line went…"

"I know. Kari was the one who bailed me out. As per."

"Well, I wasn't gonna say it, but…"

"Har har. Any idea where she is?"

"She was going to fill in TK last time I checked."

"Okay. See ya later, buddy."

"Is that a subtle hint?"

"It wasn't subtle in the least. Skedaddle."

=============================================================

Jenny was in the surgery when Danny finally caught up with her. She was tending to the soldier who had been caught by the broken RAST wire, and was currently applying a bandage to the ugly red welt across his chest. The man smile dup at her, and spoke in Portuguese.

"Thankyou, ma'am."

"You're welcome. You've got good manners for a Latino lad."

"My mother always told me to respect the woman who held her life in my hands."

"Sound advice. Now you rest, and someone'll be by to check on you later."

The soldier nodded and lay back. Jenny turned, and walked away into the equipment room without acknowledging him. He followed her quietly, and presently heard her crying in the small room. He opened the door, to see her looking out of the back window, with tears streaking down her face.

"Jenny?"

"Leave me alone."

He stepped into the cupboard, and closed the door with a gentle click behind him.

"Can't do that. Wouldn't be right."

"Go away!"

"No. not until you tell me what's wrong."

"I lost, Danny. That's what."

She didn't need to explain. He knew precisely what she meant. He stepped forward, and gently clasped his arms around her. Her tearful face pressed against his shoulder, and she sobbed there for a second, before pushing him away.

"Thankyou, Danny. But I can't right now. I have too much work to do."

He stepped aside to let her through the door. As she passed him, he didn't look at her.

"I didn't mind, Jenny."

"I know."

"No, you don't. I know everything about you Jenny. I know you like rainy nights. I know you like romance movies with happy endings, but pretend not too, and I know that you look up to your father more than anyone else in the world. Do you know what that means, Jenny?"

"Huh?"

He stopped, and closed his eyes.

"Forget it. I'll see you around. I've gotta go square away the equipment."

She nodded, confused.

"Alright. Thankyou, Danny."

"…Yeah."

She walked out, and after a few seconds, so did he, heading in the opposite direction.

=============================================================

Davis found Kari in TK's room, her knees folded up to her chest, and her hair slicked down against her shoulders. She was shivering.

"Jesus, Kari, what are you doing to yourself?"

Immediately, he headed over to the cupboard and produced a towel. Moving over to her, he began to rub at her chilled arms.

"D..Davis…"

"Shh. Just get warmed up first." He said tenderly. He continued to rub her arms, until she reached up and grabbed the towel.

"I can manage now. Thanks."

He stood, and nodded.

"Fine. I heard what you did out there today, Kari."

"I didn't do all that much."

"Bull. You're the one who got us down onto the ground in one piece. If it wasn't for you, I wouldn't be here."

"You said you would go for one of the military bases."

"I was running scared."

She stopped drying her hair, and looked up at him.

"You?"

"I was. I didn't have enough fuel to make it, and I knew it. I just couldn't think of an alternative. But you did, Kari."

She stood up. On the single bed in the room, TK snored slightly.

"I think I'm gonna go to my room now, Davis."

He nodded, no smile on his face, and let her pass before following her out of the room.

After they had left, TK opened his eyes.

"What precisely is taking them so long to figure it out?" he muttered to himself, before standing up, and heading for where his clothes were hung in the cupboard.

=============================================================

Kari stopped at the door to her room, and opened the door.

"Do you… wanna come in for a little while?"

He didn't see the harm in it. He followed her through the door. She sat down on the bed, and he took the chair.

"I was so afraid tonight, Davis."

"Why was that?"

"Because I thought I was gonna lose you. You're one of my best friends in the world, and I couldn't stand the thought of losing you. Not again."

"What do you mean again?"

"When you left three years ago… I didn't know what I felt. All I knew was that one of the people who was most important to me had suddenly upped and left. You didn't even say goodbye, Davis!"

"I didn't want to hurt anyone by doing it."

"I know." She said quietly.

He stood up to leave.

"Davis?"

"Yeah?"

"Can you just… stay with me? Just for this night?"

"…I wont do anything that might hurt you, Kari."

"I know."

He sat down on the small bed, and leaned back against the wall. She leaned against his shoulder, and put her arms around his chest. Presently, he felt the change in her breathing as she drifted off into sleep, and continued to stare into the darkness until sleep claimed him as well.

=============================================================

(A/n) little late, but I had other work to do, I'm afraid. I know its not the best of chapters, but I'm trying to build up to stuff here, so gimme a break, okay?

Writer plug this week goes to the magnificent Kaeera, who is one of my regular reviewers, but is also a far better writer than me. 

And that's it for this week. Ja ne!


	11. Chapter 11

Chapter 11:

*********

Small droplets of water fell from the awning over the patio as the sun rose over the horizon. Davis, standing at the window in Kari's room, watched as the giant orb of fire emerged from the cloak of night. He heard her stir on the bed behind him, and glanced at her.

"Time to get up."

"Huh? Why?"

"I'm flying to the capital today. I'm taking you and TK with me."

His voice was neutral. But even despite that, Kari could tell he was keeping his emotions in check. It was revealed in a dozen little flickers behind his eyes, a hundred minuscule movements of his body.

It scared her, the way that she had noticed all this so quickly. How long had she been able to discern these things about him, just in a couple of seconds?

"I guess it was time for that. And it's only been two nights after all." 

"Hmm."

He continued to stare out of the window for a while, before turning to look at her. 

"C'mon. Let's go get some breakfast."

"Okay."

She got out of the bed, and walked behind him to the door. As he stepped out of the room, a familiar figure was walking down the hall.

"Hi, Jenny."

The young nurse saw Kari coming out from the room behind him, and froze. Davis saw the expression on her face, stopped speaking.

"Oh… shit."

 Jenny turned on her heel and walked away. Davis went after her.

"Jenny, c'mon!"

She didn't turn. Instead, she sharply elbowed him in the ribs, doubling him over.

"Leave me alone Davis. I don't even want to look at you right now."

She walked off down the corridor.

"Fuck, fuck, FUCK!" Davis swore. Kari came to his shoulder.

"What was that all about?" she asked.

"It's probably better for you not to know. You won't like the answer."

She looked in the direction Jenny had gone. 

"I think you'd be right about that."

He straightened up painfully.

"She knows where to hit, too. Let's pick up TK on the way to the kitchen."

=============================================================

Danny was waiting for the three as they entered the kitchen. 

"Davis, can I have a word with you?"

The digidestined shared a glance with Kari.

"Sure."

They walked out onto the patio, as Kari and TK sat themselves at the table.

"That can't possibly be good." The blonde man said. "I think that we're going the right way about it by getting out today." He gave her a steady look. "We've also got to keep in mind what the Boss said to us."

Kari fixed him with an ice-cold stare.

"You jealous TK?" she said acidly.

He shrugged.

"Hey, it's your choice. But they've got an operation going on here that can't risk press involvement. We can't compromise them, Kari. They're on dangerous ground as it is."

She stared off into nowhere.

"I know that. And I know that we can't get involved. But…"

"But nothing, Kari. I know you have feelings for Davis…"

"That's a cold description."

"I'm a cold person sometimes. But all you had was last night. Leave it there."

She didn't say anything, and simply nodded once.

=============================================================

"So?"

"So what?"

"So what happened between you and Kari last night?"

"We slept together. In the literal sense of Sleeping. Not that it's any of your damn business."

"Jenny's upset, you know."

Davis rounded on his friend.

"To be quite frank, Danny, it's not actually any of her damn business either."

"Do you think its HQ's business?"

Davis shook his head.

"Kari isn't going to report anything. Besides, even if she did, what could she say?"

Danny shrugged.

"It's a fair point. But you're walking a very thin line, mate. You've got to be bloody careful. If this is gonna continue…"

"It isn't."

Danny looked into his eyes. Davis's face was carefully neutral, and Danny recognised it as being the expression his friend wore when he didn't intend to reveal he was 

upset. He'd developed it after those six weeks in a psychiatric ward in China.

"So what now?"

"So I fly them back to the Rosa city. What they do from there is their own deal."

Danny nodded approvingly. 

"I guess that's the best way."

"So shall we go back inside?"

The Englishman shrugged. Davis turned on his heel and headed back into the kitchen.

He sat down at the table, and poured himself a coffee. 

"Okay, here's the deal. I'll fly you back to the city as soon as we've finished breakfast, because I need to go shopping anyway. From there, we go our separate ways."

"Ok." TK replied.

"Right. So eat up folks. Last train homes on its way."

=============================================================

"This is AR-one, requesting permission to land at Rosa city airport." Davis said into his headset.

"Copy that AR-one. Permission is granted for pad 0-5. Welcome back to Rosa City."

"Always a pleasure, control."

He circled the newly repaired lynx once, and headed for the fifth helipad on the line. The helicopter landed smooth as silk – something that Davis was immensely happy for.  He turned and looked into the back of the helicopter.

"Alright, folks. Here we are."

The two reporters in the rear of the vehicle nodded, and gathered up their small bags. Davis busied himself with making sure all aspects of the chopper were locked down. He couldn't look at them. Not now. Finally, he stood, and climbed down from the cockpit. On the other side of the vehicle, Danny also disembarked, and stretched languorously.

"I never get used to these cross country trips."

"Negativity, rampant negativity. That's all I'm hearing from that side of the cockpit these days."

Davis reached forward and opened the sliding door to the helicopters bay, allowing Kari and TK to step down into the bright south-American sunshine. He smiled at them.

"I guess this is where we part ways."

TK gave him a half-grin.

"I guess so." He raised his hand.

Davis seized his friends palm, and pulled the other man into a bear hug. 

"You take care of yourself, hear? Don't get shot again."

"I make no promises." TK laughed. He stepped away, and Davis moved to stand before Kari.

"…Kari… I…"

She smiled slightly.

"Don't say anything, Davis. I'll see you again sometime."

It was so mundane, so half-arsed, that he almost wanted to laugh at the stupidity of the sentence. Kari stepped next to TK, and the two reporters headed away across the tarmac. Suddenly, Kari stopped. Although they were too far away for him to hear, he could see TK saying something to her. The brown haired woman dropped her back, turned on her heel, and walked back to him.

"What the hell – one for the road."  

She leant up, cupped his face in her hands, and kissed him gently on the lips. He was so stunned, that his eyes widened as he stared into her face. She parted from him, and without another word, turned and walked back to TK. She didn't even look back as she picked up her bag, and walked away towards the exit gate.

Davis watched her go, and angrily cuffed at a tear in his eye. Danny looked at him.

"What the hell was that all about?"

Davis laughed bitterly.

"That? That was a goodbye."

=============================================================

Kari didn't even speak to TK until they got back to the hotel.

"Are you okay?" her oldest friend asked quietly.

"I'm fine. But I don't want to have to do that again."

"I understand. Let's go do an interview with Martinez, and then we'll go see if we can make any contact with the rebels. Grab some shots of the city whilst we're at it."

"Fine."

She dropped her bag off in her room, and grabbed her camera and laptop.

"Gatomon, can you stay here?"

"Sure."

She headed back out to TK.

"Let's go."

"You sure you want to?"

"Yeah. Let's just keep busy."

"It's your call." TK shrugged.

"Thankyou."

"That's okay. If anyone asks, its all your fault."

"Somehow I KNEW you were going to say that…"

=============================================================

Davis selected a jar of spices from the shelf, and placed it into the trolley. Danny looked at the jar with distaste. 

"Please tell me you're going to be using that to kill insects."

"What are you talking about? That's dinner!"

"Oh, Gods."

"You don't have to eat it if you don't like it."

"You're the only one of use who knows how to cook!"

"That's not my fault, is it?"

Danny didn't have an answer for that. Davis laughed, and picked a few more spice jars.

"so… you okay?" Danny asked.

"What do you think?"

"I think that you're hiding your feelings pretty damn well."

"You'd probably be right. Just leave it alone, Danny. You won't like where you go if you continue this."

The Englishman shrugged, and grabbed a box of beers from the shelf.

"A little much, wouldn't you say?"

"Dude, I've TASTED your cooking. If there was a two-for-one offer, I'd take that and all."

Davis grinned, and began to push the loaded trolley towards the checkout. He handed over the payment card that had been issued to him by the AR - they had a debit agreement with this supermarket that allowed them to use the facilities all over the world – and bagged up his items. Between them, the pair took the bags out to the jeep they always had waiting for them at the airport and loaded up the boot. Davis turned to his friend.

"You wanna get some lunch?"

"With what you're planning to cook tonight, I'll need something in my stomach."

"Thanks, Danny. I love you too. What do you want?"

"Hamburgers?"

"Too stodgy. Sushi?"

"Only if you can find one that's sanitary."

"Forget it then."

"How about Thai?"

"Always too dry. Chinese?"

"Always leaves me hungry. Pizza?"

"…Yeah, I can run with that."

"Alright then. You paying?"

Davis rolled his eyes.

"I KNEW you were gonna ask that. Half-and-half, Danny."

"Damn. Worth a try."

He got into the drivers seat of the car, as Davis slipped into the passenger side.

"You know a place?"

"Sure."

"You have the helm, Mr Brown."

=============================================================

"You know, I do believe our shadow's returned." TK said casually.

"What took him so long?"

"Don't know. Couldn't care less."

She laughed. Despite their best efforts, the pair had been unable to secure a meeting with Martinez, and had been politely but firmly escorted from the building. Now, they were heading back to the hotel in order to procure some rides out to the villages in the country. After all, a human interest piece is pretty useless without the human interest. Kari glanced at her watched, and sighed.

"Look, its lunchtime. You wanna go back to that burger place?"

"Sure. It's the only place we've found that served decent food around here."

She laughed, and headed off in the direction of the small café. TK casually looked into the reflective window of shop, and casually noted that the man who had been following them since their first day in Rosastan was still on their tails. That relieved TK. If whoever had been following them had replaced the man, then it obviously mean that he considered them more of a threat. The fact that it was the same guy implied that they weren't thought to be too much of a problem. In fairness, they weren't. They weren't exactly digging into the deep dark corners of Rosastan's political and criminal organisations, after all. 

They entered the café, and ordered quickly. Kari casually looked over his shoulder.

"He's sitting at the table by the door." She murmured. 

"That figures. At least the guy isn't subtle. That'd make my headache even worse."

"Have you been taking your pills?"

He shook his head.

"I want my mind clear."

"you wont be much good if you're incapacitated. Go take them."

"When we get back to the hotel."

"Now, TK."

He rolled his eyes.

"Yes, Ma'am."

He got to his feet and headed for the bathroom. The man, who had been sitting next to the door, came over and sat opposite Kari.

"Miss Hikar Kamiya, Photographer for the Japanese _Oracle?_"

"You have me at a disadvantage, Mr…?"

"For purposes of this meeting, I'm calling myself…" he looked embarrassed. "Zorro."

Kari's expression didn't change.

"How original."

'Zorro' winced. 

"My apologies. I understand that you are looking to set up a meeting with the rebels."

"Maybe we are."

"I represent them. They will be waiting for you in whichever of the villages you go to."

"Even I don't know which ones I'm going to yet."

"It doesn't matter. We'll be there."

"Fine."

He stood, and left the restaurant. Kari sighed. What was it with these people and being melodramatic? TK came out of the restroom, and sat down next to him. He gave her an enquiring look.

"Well, our tails gone."

"I noticed."

"We need to head out to the villages tomorrow."

"I'll take your word for it, but right now, I'm hungry."

She laughed, and they started to eat.

=============================================================

Davis glanced around at the small slice of Italy in the centre of South America. 

"How the hell did you come across this place, Danny?"

"General exploration. I don't spend ALL my time babysitting you, you know."

He laughed, and hefted the slice of pepperoni pizza to his mouth. It was damn good pizza, and he chewed with relish.

"I wish they weren't all so secretive about their recipes."

"Why?"

"Because I WANT this one."

"I could probably get it to you. The manager's daughter is kinda fond of me."

Davis glanced at the pretty girl behind the counter, and rolled his eyes.

"What?" Danny asked, smiling.

"Why, Mr Motomiya, what a pleasure to see you here."

Davis's hand froze halfway to his mouth, the slice of pizza suspended. He gently put the food down.

"Damn, just when I was enjoying my food, the rats come crawling out of the woodwork."

"There's no need to be impolite, Mr Motomiya."

Davis turned, and looked at the man.

"What do you want?"

Max Sanchez smiled at him.

"I just want to talk, Mr Motomiya - just to talk."

=============================================================

(A/n)

Yes, finally they've moved on from the little niche I had them in! Sorry that I got them so caught up in that bit. I promise that the story'll move a little faster from now on. Not too much faster, but a bit. ^_^.

I wont actually apologise for this chapter being late, cos it actually wasn't. ^^, I started a new story last week, called "Born To Run", so that took up a bit of my time. 

No author plug this week, I'm afraid, because I need to check my reviewers for people TO plug. I haven't in a while, so they'll be one next chapter. 

Ja ne!


	12. Chapter 12

Chapter 12:

********

"May I sit?" Sanchez asked.

Davis gestured to the empty chair. If he was gonna have to talk to the man, he wanted him in a position where he could shoot him easily. Sanchez sat himself down across the table from the two pilots, and placed his hands on the tablecloth.

"I bring no weapons."

"That was stupid," Davis said, "These are dangerous times."

"How very droll, Mr Motomiya."

"What do you want, Sanchez?" Davis said bluntly.

"I have come to offer you a deal."

"Not interested."

"Wait until you hear it first." Sanchez said. A trace of steel was in his voice, and Davis didn't reveal his inward twinge of nervousness. A man like Sanchez hadn't gained the power he had by being nice and playing fair. He sat silently.

"My deal is simple. I will offer you one million American dollars for the box of pure drugs you have at your base."

Neither Davis nor Danny looked impressed.

"A million US? And what about the people whose lives they'll save?"

Sanchez shrugged.

"Mere peasants. Why should men like ourselves care about cattle?"

Davis smiled icily.

"No deal."

Next to him, Danny surreptitiously slipped his hand under the table to the pocket at the side of his cargo pants. Sanchez grinned pleasantly.

"Well, that is a pity. I'm sure that some of the other members of your team would be more… accommodating. Maybe I should speak to them."

"I doubt that they'd like to speak to you."

"Oh, I don't know. I'm sure myself and Miss Cole could go through some… negotiations."

Davis and Danny's smiles became suddenly ominous. A flicker of fear crossed Sanchez's eyes as he realised he'd gone too far. But the man refused to back down, instead going for lone last less-than-subtle threat.

"Of course, it may not come to that. If all else fails, I'm sure Paulo here can do my negotiating for me."

The big muscled man behind him grinned. But he didn't even see the two pilots move. Before he could do as much as Blink, Danny had risen to his feet, pulling the .50 Desert Eagle from his pocket, and levelling it at Sanchez's second-in-command. Davis, in the meantime, had kicked Sanchez's chair out from under him, slamming the man's chin into the table, and was pushing down on the back of his neck.

"Now you listen to me, you slimy son of a bitch," Davis growled, "I've had to deal with shit like you before. People who think they're so big they can get away with anything. Well let me tell you this: if you so much as come within a hundred yards of my friends, I'll reach down your throat and rip out your heart, is that clear?"

He let go of Sanchez, and allowed the Latino to his feet. 

"Now get out of here. I want to finish my lunch."

Sanchez took a step back, his eyes filled with hate.

"I'll kill you, you fucker! I'll kill you with my own two hands!"

Danny's gun-hand didn't even as much as shake as Davis replied.

"You wouldn't be the first to say that, but you're welcome to try any time, bunky."

The pair of pilots watched as the drug baron and his bodyguard left he restaurant. Davis picked up the chair he'd knocked over, and nodded to the owner.

"Sorry about the mess." He said in Portuguese.

"It is fine, sir." The man replied. "I have waited a long time to see someone talk like that to Max Sanchez. Would you and your friend like a bottle of wine – and another pizza, on the house?"

Davis and Danny glanced at each other.

"My friend, you've just made us very happy men."

=============================================================

Sanchez got to the corner of the street before he finally calmed down. Paulo Santiago placed a hand on his boss and friends shoulder. 

"You want me to go back and sort them out, Max?"

"No. this little episode has shown that at the very least they'll fight back if they have to. And I want to see just how far I can push that bastard, Paulo."

"Right, Boss."

"In the meantime, my friend, I think its time for us to play our ace in the hole. Have our agents with the rebels feed us times and places for the meeting between the Japanese _Oracle_ news team and the rebels."

"Got it."

"I want to squeeze Motomiya, Paulo. I want to squash him like a bug in the palm of my hand. So arrange something that will shock him quickly. I want him to know that he can't get away from me."

=============================================================

Davis parked the car in its space, and stepped out, stretching in then afternoon sunshine. Danny got out of the other side, and headed around to the boot.

"C'mon. The sooner we get loaded up, the sooner we can get home."

"Right, right. Home is where the heart is, huh?"

"Don't get moody on me, Davis, it doesn't suit you." His friend replied acidly.

Davis laughed, and began to pull the shopping onto the trolley supplied by the airport. He reached into the front compartment, and pulled out the three bottles of wine that he'd just HAD to buy from the owner of the pizzeria. He suspected he'd been chronically overcharged, but what the hell.

Rolling the trolley over to the helicopter, Danny opened the slide door, and the pair began loading up. 

"You realise you'll have to face Jenny when you get home?"

"Yup."

"And that doesn't bother you?"

"Nope."

"Mind if I ask why?"

"Like I told you earlier, it wasn't actually any of her business. If she didn't like it, well she'll just have to live with it."

"That's harsh."

"I know. But it's the only thing I can do. I can't go up to her and lie to her about how I feel, any more than you could. She's one of my best friends. but I'm not in love with her. She's more like my little sister."

"Dude, you're rattling off clichés at a rate of knots here. I think this Latino atmosphere's getting to you. Let's get outta here."

Davis laughed, and opened the cockpit door. Warming up the motors, he sat back, and listened to the chat of day-to-day radio messages going out over the airwaves. Danny strapped himself in next to his friend, and slipped on his own headset.

"Control, this is AR-one, requesting Takeoff clearance."

"Copy that, AR-one. If you can pull off a loop first try, you can leave."

"That sounds like a wager, Control."

"Roger that."

"How much?"

"200US good for you?"

"Sounds about right." Danny glanced across at Davis. "What do you think?"

"Tell them to send me a cheque."

"I've secured in all the cargo. Feel free."

Davis grinned. He opened the collective, and the Lynx took to the air, its Thompson-customised engines growling in anticipation. The pilot closed his eyes and took a deep breath. His mind focused, and he felt at one with the aircraft around him. He gunned the throttles, building up speed and height. An anticipatory silence was all that could be heard over the airways, as the tower staff watched the speeding chopper. Danny started humming "Ride of the valkyries."

Davis pulled back gently on the stick, and the aircraft began to climb. He felt the Gs pressing him back into the padded seat, and he gritted his teeth as the adrenaline flowed. A lynx wasn't supposed to be able to do this kind of thing. The aircraft type had been in service since the Vietnam war, and even then hadn't been designed for the kind of stress that a loop would put on it. He watched as Danny casually began leafing through a magazine he'd picked up in the city. The trick for any passengers was not to watch what was going on. Even when your hair, like Danny's, was falling vertically from your head.

And then he was through, the ground surging up towards him. He eased off the throttles as he came forward, and gunned them hard as the aircraft levelled off, keeping the lynx in the air. Danny pressed the transmit button on the radio.

"Put it on our credit, control."

Cheers erupted from the radio as the tower staff went wild, as well as a muffled curse from the man who'd foolishly bet his money against Davis's flying ability. Davis lifted the aircrafts nose, and flew a lazy circle around the building before heading off over the city.

As they flew away, a pillar of smoke sprung up in their path. Davis banked to avoid it.

"Wonder what that is?" Danny muttered, toggling the radio. "Rosa City control, I have smoke over the city. Mind giving us a sitrep?"

"A rebel attack, AR-one." The man replied. "Someone tossed a hand grenade through the window of a pizzeria downtown. Killed the owner and his wife. The daughters been taken to hospital."

"Oh, man… copy that, Control."

Danny togged off the radio, and looked at Davis. There was a look of suppressed fury in the digidestined face.

"Son of a bitch…" he muttered, "That goddamn son of a bitch…"

=============================================================

(A/N)

I know, it's a lot shorter and a lot later than most of my chapters, but I took a break over Easter to write some original stuff, as well as my content for Otak-uk, and it took me a while to get back into the swing of things. The reason its shorter is, well, this is essentially the second half of the day started in the last chapter, and there's only so much I can go with that before I had to stop for the sake of dramatic tension. However, there will be more in the next chapter, which WILL be in two weeks time.


	13. Chapter 13

Chapter 13:

The lynx came in low over the canopy of the trees, touching down on the helipad of the Air Relief base. Jenny came walking out to meet them, but recoiled as Davis stepped down from the cockpit, his face like a thunderstorm. The pilot moved over to the cargo bay and slammed open the door.

"What happened?" Jenny asked, her anger from that morning forgotten.

"Sanchez." Danny responded bitterly.

"Did he attack you?" Jenny asked, worry overriding her emotions.

Davis gave a hollow laugh.

"No. he did something worse." He described the incident in the city to her.

"Oh my god."

"He didn't have much to do with it, Jenny."

It was at that point that Davis finally lost control of his emotions, and proceeded to kick ten shades of hell out of an empty barrel, all the while imagining that it was Sanchez and his tame monkey, Paulo on the end of the boot. When he finally stopped. His anger was brewing just below surface, and he collapsed in a heap against the wall of a shed.

"You okay?" Jenny asked quietly.

"A little better." Davis said, nursing his aching foot.

Jenny turned her attentions to Danny, who was sitting on the edge of the helicopter bay staring broodingly into the jungle.

"There wasn't any bloody need for it." He swore. "He killed two people to send us a fucking message."

"Don't start, Danny." Davis said.

"Oh, get over yourself Davis! He killed them!"

Davis scrabbled to his feet.

"You think I don't fucking know that?" he snarled.

Danny leapt up.

"So why don't you show a little emotion, you twat? It's because of us!"

Davis's eyes blazed.

"You little bastard. I ought to break your nose."

"Take your best fucking shot, tosser." Danny snarled.

The pair surged towards each other, but Thompson, moving swiftly from the workshop, stepped between them, his huge frame stopping them dead.

"That's enough, you two. give it a rest – this is exactly what Sanchez wants."

Davis turned away.

"I don't need this shit from him."

"Oh, shove it up your arse." Danny snarled.

Davis blasted towards him once again, to be met by Thompson's arm.

"I said that's enough! Both of you, go and cool down, before I kick both your asses!"

Davis shot a last glare at Danny, and stalked off towards the kitchen. Danny stormed off towards the recreation room. Jenny let out a breath.

"God, I thought we were gonna have a bust-up there."

"Nah. Those pair just needed to blow off steam at each other and calm down. They wont even need to apologise. They both just let themselves go."

"With Davis, I'm not sure we can afford that. You gonna help me unpack the supplies?"

"Well… I've got this stuff to do in the workshop and…" He caught her look "…I can certainly put it off while I help you, Jenny."

"Good boy."

=============================================================

Kari sat behind the wheel of the rental car, and familiarised herself with driving on the right of the road.

"I can drive…" TK said.

"Not when you're does up, you cant. Plug in the laptop to the socket, will you? See if you can get a link through to the boss. Gatomon, give him a hand."

TK rolled his eyes, and pulled out the small machine from the bag in the back of the car. Plugging it into the cigarette lighter-socket, he activated it's wireless internet linkup, and clicked onto the _Oracle_'s secure server. Activating the built-in webcam, he sent a call to Kazuo Kuramoto. The editor's face flashed up on the screen.

"Hey guys. How're you coping?"

"Why don't you tell us?" TK asked. He'd recognised the note in the man's voice.

"Well, for some reason I seem to have an official letter of complaint from the Rosastan defence ministry on my desk. Seems to accuse my reporters of sticking their noses in where they aren't wanted."

"Would we do a thing like that?"

"Of course not. That's why it's been lost."

"Thanks, boss."

"Now, what is this I've also heard about you two hanging out with the air relief?"

Kari flinched slightly.

"It wasn't a matter of choice boss. It was go with them or stick around on the middle of a battlefield."

"Fair enough. They mind much?"

"Not really. Turns out one of them was an old friend of ours."

Kuramoto's eyes lit up.

"Oh really?"

"Whatever you're thinking, the answers no. The people around here need them more than we need a story."

"Fine, fine." The editor's eyes went serious once more. "Are you two back on course for the story."

"Yeah, we're heading out to a village tomorrow. We're gonna grab some shots of the people, and meet up with some of the rebels."

"Good work. Oh, and TK?"

"Yeah?"

"Try not to get shot again."

"You have no idea how hard I'm trying."

=============================================================

Davis set the pot full of water onto the boil, and sat down at the table.

"Okay, folks, we seem to have a problem."

"That's a slight understatement." Danny muttered.

"Shut up, dilweed."

"Well, it is."

"Not the point. Now, if I can continue?"

"Of course, Davis."

"Well, it seems that me and Danny have inadvertently declared war on Max Sanchez."

Graham blinked.

"Oops."

"Oops? We've just entered into open hostilities with one of the most powerful drug barons in Rosastan, and all you can say is 'oops'?" Jenny said incredulously.

"Jenny, my dear daughter, when you reach my age, you'll find that most things boil down to 'oops'. Now what are we gonna do about this, Davis?"

He shrugged.

"When it boils down to it, I don't think that there's hell of a lot we can do."

Danny rolled his eyes.

"Thus ends another episode of 'wasting time with Davis'."

Davis smiled slightly, and turned back to the cooking. He picked a spice jar from the shelf, and Danny recognised it as an incredibly hot seasoning. He was comfortable with the fact that Davis used the stuff sparingly – until he saw the pilot empty the remains of the quarter-full jar into the pot of water

An intense, spicy smell filled the kitchen. Davis turned back to his friend, a malicious grin on his face.

"You were saying, Daniel?"

"I hate you. So very much."

The digidestined gave a mock sigh.

"I really wish that's the first time I'd heard that this week."

=============================================================

The next morning, Kari strapped herself into the car as she and TK prepared for their excursion to a typical Rosastanian village. Gatomon slipped into the back o the car, and booted up the laptop.

"You gonna sort out our tracking update?" Kari asked, referring to the location notification to be sent to the office.

"Actually, I was gonna play solitaire, but that's good to."

"Thanks."

"Welcome. Incidentally, how are you holding up?"

"I'm holding. What's brought this on?"

"Just curious."

"Bull. You're being nosy."

"So you caught me. And?"

Kari searched for a response, found she didn't have one, and glared at the small Digimon. Gatomon grinned back impudently. Kari finally turned away as TK and Patomon got into the car.

"You set to go?"

"Sure. Lets get out of here before this damn smartass behind me gets any worse."

TK laughed, and Kari reversed the car out of its space. She gently tucked her hair back behind he ears as she drove.

"We've gotta be careful today."

"No shit."

"I'm serious, TK. Were meeting with the other side of the war here, not just the civilians."

"Kari, I may be dosed up to the eyeballs, but I'm still the consummate professional."

Gatomon snorted.

"…I see what you mean about her being a smartass."

"Thanks."

She shook her head in disgust as they pulled out of the parking lot.

=============================================================

Davis's right fist slammed into the gym's punching bag, knocking it back on its chain. Danny, bracing the heavy piece of equipment, never failed to be surprised at the taut strength in his friend's arms. Davis wasn't using any fancy martial arts or boxing – he was just pounding out his anger on the bag.

Finally he stepped away.

"Your turn."

As Danny took his place in front of the bag, and Davis braced it, he asked the question he'd been meaning to for a long time.

"Davis?"

"Yeah?"

"What do you remember about China?"

there was a long pause.

"Not a lot, really. I can barely remember flying back from that village with that girl in the cockpit beside me, and I can only remember flashes of the hospital room." He laughed. "I was pretty screwed up at the time."

"Yeah. Just noticeably less than you are now."

Davis let the bag move slightly, so Danny came of balance and tripped on the edge of the mat. His co-pilot looked up at him.

"There are times when I could really hate you."

"I know." Davis grinned, and picked up his water bottle. A couple of the Rosastanian soldiers, who were still in the hospital until their replacement tents arrived, were watching from the treadmills. Davis sat on the edge of one of the weight machines.

"In truth, Danny, I don't like to think about that time. All I can remember about it is the darkness in front of my eyes, and always screaming. I hate myself for that."

"It wasn't exactly your fault, mate."

"Oh, I know. Doesn't mean I have to like it."

"Heh. So what snapped you out of it?"

"Well, you know how I always mention my guardian angel?"

"Yeah."

"I'm not just bullshitting. I could hear her voice, Danny, telling me to come back, that it wasn't my time yet. Part of me thought it was just me being insane, but the other part of me started to listen, and I began to pull myself out of that shit." He shrugged. "Make of it what you will. I know what I believe."

Danny smiled, and picked up the roster for the day.

"Hey, we've got a visit to that village in F-9."

"The one that has those great chilli peppers?"

"That's the one."

"Sweet."

"What about Sanchez, Davis? Are you gonna do anything about him?"

"Of course I am."

"What?"

"I'm gonna ignore him."

(A/n)

Gah, sorry for the lateness of the chapter, but I'm entering into exam season, so I have very little time to spend on fics at the moment. That said, I'm gonna try and post a chapter of DiM every week at least until its finished.

Also, if anyone's in the least bit interested, you're gonna be seeing anew look version of my site in a couple of week. If you ARE interested, you can even join my forums, and help repel any flamers who think I'm not a real anime fan when I make a typo in the title of "Ghost in the shell."

-Ben.


	14. Chapter 14

Chapter 14:

The Camera shutter buzzed in the afternoon sun, a single small noise amid a cacophony of bustling sound that was life in a small Rosastanian village.

Kari lowered the camera from her face, and glanced at the wall the villager had been pointing out to her. A dark smear was across the white plaster surface, and Kari shook here head when the villager asked her what if she knew what it was.

"About three weeks ago," the man said in heavily accented English, "Some men from the Sanchez drug cartel came to our village. They pulled one of the young men who had used to work for them out of his bed, put him up against the wall of his house, and shot him."

Kari stared it him, incredulity on her face. But the honest expression he wore turned her views into insubstantial arguments.

"Why did they shoot him?"

"He'd decided to stop working for them. No-one walks away from the Cartels. After they killed him, they told his wife that if she wanted to carry their child to term, she wouldn't tell the police."

Kari felt sick.

"Thanks to the Air Relief, though, she was able to give birth to a healthy boy last week."

"The Air Relief?"

"_Si_. They not only came down to help her deliver the child, but the Pilots managed to drive off two armed Cartel men, without even firing a shot."

Kari laughed.

"That sounds like Davis's style. He was never one to do things the orthodox way."

The feeling of anger dispelled by the mans comments, she turned back to photographing the village. A short distance away, TK was interviewing the head man of the village. Much laughter was being exchanged between the two, with the blonde mans innate ability to get on with anyone he met relaxing the headman sufficiently that he was giving answers himself, rather than the ones that the cartel or the government had wanted him to give.

"So what would you say is the biggest problem here in the villages?"

"The Cartels. Easily. They are only interested in lining their own pockets. At least the rebels and government soldiers are fighting for causes they believe in."

"Which side are you on?"

The head man shrugged.

"What do either of the causes matter to this village? Governments change, but things still stay the same for us."

TK smiled slightly.

"I guess that's the way of things the world over."

He turned at the sound of a 4x4's motor cutting through the stillness of the village. Kari continued snapping shots of the villagers before turning to look.

"You think its them?" she asked.

"Looks like. You wanna go to meet them?"

"No. let them come to us. That'll show 'em that we're in control."

"Are we?"

"Nope, but we shouldn't let THEM know that."

TK's eyes showed a distinct lack of amusement.

"Gatomon?"

"Yeah?"

"Keep an eye on the Jeep. Anyone goes near it that isn't from the village, and if anyone tries to interfere with it, run 'em off."

"Got it."

The Rebels 4x4 pulled into the village square. The three armed men sat in the vehicle disembarked and strode towards them.

"I understand you are the reporters?" one said.

"We might be."

"Good, you can help us make our cause known to the world."

Kari and TK shared a glance. It was going to be a long day.

=============================================================

Davis cranked up the Lynx's engines as the rest of the air relief team made their way towards him across the tarmac of the helipad.

"You guys geared up?"

"Yeah." Thompson replied. "What's on the roster for today?"

"We've got some checkups, and that's pretty much it. Oh, and we have to stop by the village in F-9."

"You out of Chilli peppers again?"

Davis's face took on a slightly injured expression at that.

"yup." Veemon said cheerily.

Davis turned on his Digimon.

"You're not meant to help him!"

"I know. But its so much fun.

Davis sighed.

"Nobody understands me."

"Oh, I think they do."

The pilot laughed and hopped up into the cockpit.

"You got your piece on you Danny?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Call it a feeling."

"Oh, great, a feeling. You realise I'm violating international law with this, don't you?"

"Yup."

"Good. Just so that's cleared up. You done the pre-flights?"

=============================================================

TK looked with distaste at the beer sitting on the counter in front of him, its murky brown colouring swirling in the dim light of the tavern.

"So, Senor, what is the Rebel's main goal in rising up against the government?" He asked.

A young man standing off to the side flared up.

"We are not rebels! We are freedom fighters."

TK waved off the distinction.

"A difference in terminology, perhaps. Why have you risen up against the government?"

The man across the table from him answered quietly.

"We have risen up against them because they repress the people and downtread the weak."

"But don't you fight in the villages and towns of those people too?"

"In a war such as this, sacrifices must be made."

TK let it drop. He knew that whatever good intentions some of the rebels might have, if they ever did gain governmental power, they'd be just as bad as the old regime. The rich get richer and the poor get poorer. And the drug barons would continue to run over the whole damn lot of them.

A man walked into the bar, his jacket revealing that he had more money than the average Rosastanian. Quite deliberately, he drew a pistol and shot the rebel leader through the head. Kari screamed as blood poured like wine across the table. The young rebel, standing off to the side, paused for a fraction of a second too much before he reached for his AK-47. A second bullet caught him in the chest, knocking him to the ground.

The echos of the gunshots resounded around the small taverna. TK, covering Kari's body with his own, felt cold metal pressed against the side of his skull, just behind his left ear.

"Mr Takaishi, I presume?" A voice said in accented English.

"Yeah?"

"I'd like to invite you on a trip, Mr Takaishi. It seems we have some mutual friends."

=============================================================

The lynx swooped into sector F-9 like a bird of prey, coming in over the village. Davis glanced out of the window.

"Hey, something's wrong."

"Yeah?" Graham said from the seat behind him.

"There's no-one down there."

"They could just be under cover."

Jenny's voice cut in on the headset."

"No, they always come out to greet us. And even if they weren't, there'd be people going to the well, and such. I think Davis is right."

Suddenly, an explosion cut through the quiet afternoon, demolishing one of the houses, and sending chunks of masonry flying into the air. Davis and Danny desperately wrenched the controls, pulling the aircraft away from the blast.

"What the fuck was that?" Danny snarled.

"I'm guessing, but I think it was friggin' explosion!" Davis growled back.

"No shit!"

Steadying the aircraft, the pair pulled the lynx up into the sky, hovering high over the village, a as second explosion rocked the town, setting the trees at the edge of the small group of houses ablaze.

"Lets get down there!" Davis said into his microphone.

Danny nodded, and taking the dual controls, followed Davis's lead as he lowered the collective, settling the aircraft gently onto the ground. Small bangs caught them off guard occasionally as the fuel cans that each house had detonated as the fire reached them.

Graham pulled open the side hatch.

"Look for survivors – move!"

"Veemon, you stay with the chopper." Davis said.

The small blue Digimon chose not to argue. Davis ran to the nearest house, and standing to one side, wrenched the door open. A gust of flame leapt out, and he glanced in. Nothing. Around the village square, the rest of the team was checking the other houses. They looked up and shook their heads. As a group, the air relief team headed for the big taverna near the centre of the town. Davis glanced at Danny, who drew the Desert eagle from his pocket and held it at the ready.

The digidestined drew back his foot, and kicked the door as hard as he could. The wooden door burst inwards, and Danny levelled the gun at the open space.

A charnel house reek wafted out from the building, making the team double over, gagging at the stench. Davis took one look into the building, turned, and emptied his stomach onto the ground.

Men. Women. Children. Not one person had been spared, and their bodies were piled into the taverna like disguarded husks. Davis finished retching onto the ground, and looked back into the building. Gagging back in the onslaught of the stench, he stepped inside. A little girl lay just inside the door, and the pilot fought back the wave of darkness that threatened to overcome his senses. At the back of his mind, he could hear the voices of those Chinese villagers being joined by new ones. He focussed, and picked up a spent cartridge from the floor.

"Uzi. 9mm. Cartel guns."

Anger threatened to overwhelm him once more. These people had been massacred for no reason other than to send another message to the Air relief team.

He stood, but as he turned to Danny, a hail of bullets swept the front of the building.

=============================================================

(a/n)

Apologise…. For lateness… Exams… Stress… Etc…

New… Version… of Website… up…. Please… visit…

Ben… collapse… now.


	15. Chapter 15

Chapter 15:

Bullets scored deep gouges in the stone walls of the bar as Davis and the rest of the team threw themselves to the ground. A hissing sound above his head confirmed the pilots fears – half of the walls were made up of cheap plaster board. They might as well have taken shelter in a cardboard box.

"Danny! Throw me your piece!" Davis yelled over the din of the Uzi's blazing away not thirty metres from the entrance. The Cartel men must have been waiting for them to land, before sneaking back into the village to take them from behind. Danny tossed the Desert Eagle to his friend, before rolling to cover Jenny, keeping the nurses head down.

Davis rolled to his side, coming up into a crouch just beside the entrance. The area around the doors would be stone – most of the villages in these parts were patched up wrecks, the legacy of a government with little money and an elitist society that repressed its lower echelons. He glanced around the door, and saw the man beside the helicopter immediately. Gently levelling the gun across his arm, he squeezed the trigger. The resulting report almost deafened him, and he rolled back into cover as he saw the sickening puff of grey mist from the side of the Cartel thugs head.

"You see any more from where you are?" he called to Danny.

"Just one!"

Davis threw the gun to him, and his friend fired quickly, before glancing at Thompson.

"I got two! they cant see me from this angle!"

The younger man passed the pistol to his friend, and Thompson aimed carefully and fired. Shifting his aim, he pulled off a second shot. His muffled curse, however, informed Davis that he's missed. The sound of firing from outside had decreased dramatically now.

"You got any spare mags?" Davis asked.

"Just the one, mate. Didn't figure I'd have to use the bloody thing."

"Why did you buy it then?" Jenny asked.

"Well… erm…"

The young nurse rolled her eyes expressively.

"Boys."

"Alright, alright." Davis thought for a second. "Joe, if you can get that last one from you angle, I reckon there's only two more after that."

"How do you figure?"

"I'll tell you later."

Joe shrugged, aimed the gun, and fired.

=============================================================

Kari couldn't see anything. In most times, this would worry her, but at this moment it was especially distressing, primarily because it was the result of having a foul-smelling bag over her head.

"Where are you taking us?" she heard TK say. His voice was level, despite their situation. She forced herself to cool her emotions, letting her journalistic instincts take over.

"You will find out when we reach there, Senor. In the meantime, please remain silent, and be warned that any attempt to escape will be met with maximum force. You may not have noticed, but we have relieved you of your digivices, and your Digimon are safely contained in animal cages."

"I understand."

There was a slight sigh.

"If its any consolation, we're merely mercenaries, hired to do this job."

"It isn't, really."

"Didn't think so."

Kari listened silently to the exchange. So far they had only conversed with TK – the typical Latino ideals of male superiority had obviously overwhelmed the mercenaries curiosity.

She leaned back in her seat. The bag was porous enough that she could make out vague shapes in the bright sunlight, but nothing more than that. She reached a hand to her right, and took TK's palm in hers, a small symbol of their combined fates.

=============================================================

Davis looked down dispassionately at the corpse of the hired thug that Sanchez had left waiting for them. He reached down, and picked up the small Uzi 9mm machine pistol lying at the man's feet, and ejected the magazine. It was still about half full, the dull brass colour of the rounds glinting up at him from the clip. He topped it off with rounds from one of the other guns, safed it, and slipped it into his waistband.

"Everyone okay?" He called.

"All good." Thompson replied.

"Alright, Davis, dish. How did you know there'd be two?" Danny asked.

"I guessed."

The group froze.

"You guessed?" Jenny said, and her voice had a dangerous edge to it. Davis shrugged.

"Hey, I'm not telepathic."

They looked disgusted. The pilot grinned at them.

"Hey, I was right, wasn't I?"

Danny kicked him in the shin as he walked past to the chopper. Davis laughed, rubbing his leg.

"Joe, did you get the rest of the guns?"

"Yeah." Even the engineer looked annoyed with his friend.

"Then lets get out of here. I don't want to stay here any longer than I have to."

"That's the most sensible thing you've said all day."

"Thanks, Joe, Really."

Veemon, who had remained underneath one of the Kevlar-mounted seats inside the Lynx, poked his head out as they looked in?"

"What kept you?"

"Had this little thing to take care of."

"I heard."

"Any radio traffic?"

"Nothing. I can't even get a signal out. Seems that someone didn't want us calling the army for help."

"Seems so. Lets get back to base."

He got into the cockpit and strapped himself in.

"You _Guessed?_" Danny hissed.

"Will you stop that?"

"Not a chance, Guessy McGuess. You gambled all of us on a frigging GUESS?"

"It happens. I was listening to the gun noises. I figured I could only hear three more guns going off, and that included the one Joe was looking at."

"You guessed on the basis of THAT?"

"Yup."

Danny shook his head in abject disgust.

=============================================================

The Lynx circled in low over the jungle canopy. Davis circled the Air Relief base of operations, carefully looking down at the installation.

"Whats wrong?" Danny asked.

"Dunno. Something doesn't feel right."

His co-pilot shrugged.

"You're probably just a little jumpy because of what happened back in the village. Don't worry about it too much."

"Hmm." Davis replied absently.

"Mind you, given the _guesses_ you've made today?"

"Will you bloody shut up about the guesses?"

"Not, I think, for a long time to come."

"I cant raise the base on the radio." Veemon said.

"Doesn't mean anything." Davis replied. "I doubt the soldiers have a man in our radio room."

Nevertheless, he reached down into his lap, and flicked the safety off on his Uzi.

=============================================================

Jenny held the gun in her hands nervously as they walked through the strangely quiet halls of the Air Relief base.

"Its way too quiet in here." She said. "It feels just like that village."

"I know what you mean." Danny whispered. "I keep expecting to see corpses any minute."

Davis hissed at them to be quiet. He stood, back to the wall, next to the door leading to the infirmary, and gently twisted the handle, Uzi at the ready. Danny moved to the other side of the entrance, his desert eagle held low, and crouched, waiting for the burst of movement that would surely come.

Danny slammed the door open, spinning into the entrance in one smooth motion, levelling his Uzi…

At an empty room. There was no-one there, not even the wounded soldier Jenny had been checking on the day before.

"I don't like this. Not one bit." He muttered.

"You think Sanchez got here too?" Danny asked.

Davis shook his head.

"Doesn't make sense. Not even Sanchez and all of his goons could take out a full military platoon. No, it looks like the troops have been called out of here for some reason."

"You're a very perceptive man, Mr Motomiya."

Davis and Danny spun, levelling their weapons at the door. Paulo Santiago stood there, a .32 snub-nosed revolver held in his hand. Its barrel was pressed against the side of Jenny's head. The young nurse's face was calm.

"Oh, just shoot the fucker, Davis. Don't mind me."

Paulo pressed the gun against her head a little harder.

"No don't you be saying that, girl. He won't do such a thing – he's too much of a good guy. Aren't you, Motomiya?"

Davis's eyes narrowed, and he brought the Uzi up.

"Now, you know that if you fire that thing, you stand just as much chance of killing Ms Cole here as you do of killing me. Uzi's aren't exactly noted for their accuracy. And before you think it, Mr Brown, neither is the desert eagle." He shrugged. "I guess the Israelis just don't mind who they hit when they design their weapons. Just drop the pieces."

Davis looked at Danny out of the corner of his eye. The co-pilot glanced back, and together, they safed their guns dropped them to the floor.

"Well done. Now, my friends, we're all going to take a little trip in that Lynx of yours. No sudden moves now – my men have already rounded up Mr Thompson and Dr Cole."

=============================================================

The bag came off her head without warning, and Kari blinked in the sudden bright light that surrounded her.

"Ah, Greetings, my Japanese friends." an urbane voice said. "My apologies for the inconvenience, but I really had a desire to meet you."

TK seemed at a loss, so Kari stepped up to the plate.

"Mr Max Santiago, I presume?"

"You presume correctly, Ms Kamiya. Welcome to my humble abode."

"Why have you brought us here?"

"All in due time, Ms Kamiya, all in due time."

The sound of a helicopter began to register on the edge of her hearing as she stared at the handsome man who had abducted her and TK.

"As for now, some friends of yours will be joining us shortly."

=============================================================

(A/N)

And THAT is how I get a chapter done. Sorry it took so long, but I haven't been able to get into writing this for the past week or so. I started writing some original fantasy and it kinda got the better of me. laughs but don't worry, the next chapter wont be nearly so far away, because it'll be much more fun to write.


	16. Chapter 16

Chapter 16:

The air relief team was ushered into the dining room at gunpoint, their captors smirking behind them as they prodded the group in the back with their Uzi's.

"Ah, the famous flying doctors." Sanchez said, a hint of cold amusement in his voice.

"Hey Davis, do you recognise that guy?" Danny said in a stage whisper.

"I think I do." Davis replied in similar fashion. "I think he's that guy whose head I slammed into a table a few days ago."

Kari was watching Sanchez, and although the drug baron's expression didn't change from its cool smile, she noticed a muscle under his eye twitch slightly.

"How Droll. If you'd care to have a seat?"

"Not particularly." Davis replied coldly.

"It wasn't really a request, Mr Motomiya. May I all you Davis?"

"…No."

The muscle ticked again.

"Mr Motomiya, I don't think I need to remind you of precisely how unpleasant I can be if you cross me. I know you don't care what happens to you all that much, but I'm sure if I started killing your friends one by one, you'd lost the attitude."

Davis's eyes narrowed, but he sat down, staring fixedly at the drug dealer. The rest of the air relief team followed, seating themselves around the table.

"Paulo, you may leave us now."

The big man smirked at Davis one last time, and left the room, joking in Portuguese to his subordinates. Kari didn't understand what he'd said, but from the look on Jenny's face, she was pretty sure that it wasn't pleasant.

"So, here we are, Mr Motomiya. Finally, we get to have a long talk."

"I don't think I have anything left to say to you, Sanchez."

"Oh, I know that, but I have plenty to say to you."

Sanchez got up from his chair, and started to walk around the table.

"You know, you air relief people have made life very difficult for me."

"We like to do these little public services. Boosts the confidence levels."

"But any other group would have capitulated to my offers long before now. You people, however, stubbornly held out, forcing me to take these drastic measures."

He paused behind Jenny. "These… extreme measures. I take no pleasure in them, you understand. You have forced my hand. I made you a million dollar offer for the drugs in that box of yours. One million US dollars. Just for one delivery. You get a fresh one every month, so why worry about it? But no, you had to be so… moralistic."

Davis rolled his eyes.

"What a pile of sanctimonious bullshit. You really think that you can convince us that it's all _our_fault that you've kidnapped us? You're so fill of it; I'm amazed anyone can stand downwind from you."

Without even blinking, Sanchez backhanded Davis across the jaw. The pilots head snapped back, and a trickle of blood, drawn by the large diamond ring the drug baron wore, began its slow crawl down his jawline.

"Paulo. You may take our guests to their… quarters now."

The big man, who had obviously been standing outside the door, came back in and hauled Davis to his feet.

"Move."

Kari looked at Sanchez.

"What are you going to do with them?"

"I'd have thought that would be abundantly obvious. I'm going to Torture them, Miss Kamiya."

=============================================================

Davis's head reeled as Paulo slammed his fist across the pilots jaw. He shook off the pain, and looked his captor square in the eyes.

"You call that a punch?"

The big man slugged him again. Davis tasted the hot metallic tang of blood in his mouth. Once again, he straightened.

"What was that. I thought you were trying to torture me, not mildly irritate me."

As the big man slammed his fist into the digidestined's gut, Davis reviewed his surroundings. Despite the ringing pain in his body, he was able to detach himself from his surroundings. He had been separated from the rest of his team. Hell, he didn't even know where Veemon was, and he was in this room, an uzi-toting henchman by the door, whilst Paulo beat up on him. He straightened again, and Paulo kicked him in the stomach, doubling him over.

"You still laughing, flyboy?"

Davis coughed.

"Course I am. You hit like a girl."

He had sworn to himself early on that he wasn't going to give this tame ape of Sanchez's the satisfaction of giving up. Thus, he carried on his defiance to the point of insanity. The chains that bound him to the wall rattled as he got to his feet. He didn't know how long he'd been here – could've been days, weeks, whatever. Didn't matter. He was surviving on pure guts alone.

"C'mon, you cunt. Fucking hit me. Don't just stand there."

Paulo slugged him again, and he cricked his neck before coming back up.

"What are you doing? HIT ME, YOU FUCKING PUSSY!"

Paulo's hand glinted as it came up again. In the time it had taken Davis to get back up, the big man had affixed a set of brass knuckles to his hand, and as the implement slammed across the pilot's face, he had to fight desperately to keep himself from blacking out. He couldn't bring himself to speak anymore, he just wanted the pain to stop. He could feel a throbbing pain where his nose should be, and knew instinctively it was broken.

"Think he's still enjoying himself, Carlos?" Paulo laughed.

That spurred Davis up to his feet, again, blind anger overwhelming his necessary need to fall to the ground and lose consciousness. He roared a cry of pure rage, and spat a gobbet of blood and teeth straight into Paulo's face. He saw the knucks coming again, but couldn't do anything to avoid them. Blackness overtook him as he claimed his small victory over his tormentors.

=============================================================

Sanchez watched the replay of Davis's torment on the video screen, flicking through, frame by frame as each punch landed. Behind him, Santiago entered the room, casually wiping his hands as if he'd just left the bathroom.

"He doesn't seem to be responding to it, does he, Paulo?"

"He's a tough one. I can break him."

Sanchez laughed slightly.

"The question is, which will break first – his body or your hand. He seems to be completely without fear." He leaned back in his chair, squinting at the screen. "I think we may have to take a different route about this."

Paulo sat next to his boss.

"What do you mean, sir? Of course, there are methods of torture that…"

"I wasn't thinking physical torture. Here." He handed the big man a dossier. Davis's photo, one of those notoriously bad passport types that never capture the real person, was paperclipped to the top of it."

"What am I looking at?"

"China. 2017." (a/n) _I tend to set these fics a LITTLE way into the future. __Davis__ was 18 in 2015_.)

"An unsanctioned mission to rescue civilians from under bombing raids. Interesting, but I don't see…"

"Keep reading. Look at the bit about the last village he went to save."

Paulo's eyes scanned down the page. He saw the note on the fire-bombed village, and read on. His eyebrow raised when he saw the psychological records one Davis's time in the hospital post-trauma.

"Definitely interesting."

"Indeed. I'll tell you what. You start working on the others – they'll respond to more… physical methods of abuse. I'm going to take Motomiya's case in hand."

The guard listening outside the door shuddered inwardly; as he heard the two men casually discuss destroying the pilot's mind. He didn't show any outward reaction, though. To do so was to cross Sanchez, and the guard had no inclination to end up like the poor bastards downstairs.

=============================================================

In an ideal world, Kari though, I would not be stuck in this stupid damn apartment. In an ideal world, I would be able to use the phone, and in an ideal world, I would know precisely what the hell has happened to Davis.

"Will you," Gatomon said, "For the love of god stop pacing? I cant hear myself think."

Kari gave her a look that clearly told of death, destruction and other fun things concerning pain.

"Look, at the moment there's nothing you can do about this. We're prisoners as well, you know."

"Gatomon, its all very well to tell me that, but the problem is that I'm not the one whose fucking getting tortured downstairs!"

"Okay. What's your plan?"

Kari stared at her.

"So you didn't even have a plan. Thought not. You were gonna… what? Overpower the guards, steal there guns, go downstairs, Grab Davis and the others and make your daring getaway?"

Kari sank down onto the bed, and cradled her head in her hands.

"What are we gonna do, Gatomon?"

=============================================================

The sound started on the very edge of his hearing, just a very slight noise, barely registered by his battered and bruised ears. He strained, pulling his mind back into focus, and listened.

It was the sound of flames. The crackling, hissing sound of dry wood shrinking in heat.

He pulled back from that noise. He couldn't see or smell the flames, or feel there heat, but he shrank from them nonetheless.

A second noise joined the first, gently tugging at his senses. Despite himself, he started straining to hear it again. He wished he hadn't.

It was screaming.

Whether Davis had linked the two automatically, or whether Sanchez had mixed the two sounds together in vain hope, it didn't matter. Davis's mind rebelled, as the faces he carried in the back of his mind, the faces of all the people he had seen senselessly killed in the past few years, rose into a collage of images in front of his eyes, their faces distorted, howling their pain and suffering into his face..

Davis's voice raised with them, and as the volume of the screams coming from the speakers that had been surreptitiously inserted into his cell increased, his voice rose with them, screaming into the darkness of the small, dank room.

=============================================================

As he watched on the screen in the monitor room, Sanchez smiled, a vicious smile of hatred satisfied.

=============================================================

Kari continued to pace the room, but stopped as Sanchez came in.

"If you two would come with me? I have something to show you."

It wasn't as if they had much choice. The hired muscle backing the drug baron up were toting submachine pistols, and for all they knew refusal would have been met with a hail of bullets. And they'd been shot at quite enough for one trip.

They were escorted into a well-equipped security room. The monitors blinked down from the wall. Some of the showed various images from around the drug-peddlers compound, but a fair few showed some… cells? Torture chambers? Whatever they were, Kari and TK immediately noticed the air relief crew chained up inside them. Kari's eyes widened as she saw Davis, straining against his chains, and screaming at the sky in a bestial howl of anguish. Her hand came up, gently tracing a line along his face on the screen.

"What have you done to them?" TK demanded.

"Them? Oh, they re nothing more than an example. The next AR crew that comes to Rosastan will not be nearly so stubborn."

TK rounded on the man, his face like a thundercloud and his hands screwed into fists. The heavies behind Sanchez immediately levelled their guns at the reporter.

"I suggest you don't make my men anxious, Mr Takaishi. They don't tend to aim very well, and they might just get Ms Kamiya into the bargain, and neither of us wants that."

"Let them go."

"I don't think so."

"You don't get it, do you? As soon as the story gets out, you're going down. You're attacking neutral Japanese, American and British citizens. You're gonna have so many countries demanding your extradition…"

"No, clearly it is YOU who does not get it, Mr Takaishi. I OWN the Rosastan government. How do you think I knew you're whereabouts in the first place? I have any number of high placed contacts in the ministries, who don't give a shit about foreign governments, the AR or you. I'm untouchable."

He turned to Kari.

"Of course, maybe Ms Kamiya here could convince me to let you two go. I'm a man whose always been susceptible to a pretty face…"

Kari smiled at him politely. Then she brought her knee up sharply into his groin. Sanchez double over gasping, as Kari looked dispassionately down at him.

"Go fuck yourself, you sanctimonious asshole."

The venom she put into those six words were enough to make even TK, one of her closest friends, back away slightly.

Sanchez recovered his breath, and got shakily to his feet.

"Take them to join the others." He snarled. "And take their damn Digimon with them. Make them watch every second."

=============================================================

Jenny glanced up from her position slumped against the wall as the door to her cell was opened, and Kari was pushed into the room.

"Ah, I see you finally join us."

"Apparently so."

Gatomon was booted into the room after them. She landed on her feet, turned, and hissed at their captors.

The henchman looked the pair of women over, and said something in Portuguese. Kari didn't understand a word, but from the look in Jenny's ice-cold eyes, she could tell that it was probably obscene. The young doctor said something in the foreign language herself, and the men glared at her. Santiago spoke over his shoulder to the guard, and the man grinned viciously, and slid the door shut.

"So, bitch," the big man said in English – probably for Kari's benefit as much as Jenny's  - "You think you can get away with saying things like that."

"Hey, its not your fault you don't have any balls. I guess Sanchez is just kinky that way."

Kari stared aghast at the other woman. Despite the obvious danger of their situation, Jenny was offering insults to these guys?

Santiago's eyes were bulging, and a vein was sticking out on his forehead.

"You think you can say that shit to me? I'll do worse to you than I did to your little boy, Motomiya. He's next door, crying like a baby, y'know. The boss broke his mind after I broke his body."

"Big deal. Davis has come back from worse than anything Sanchez can throw at him. You boys don't stand a chance."

"Maybe… but in the meantime, I don't need to break your mind." Santiago smiled a lewd grin. "Your body'll give me more than enough fun."

He stepped forward, removing his jacket as he came.

=============================================================

TK, in the meantime, had been shackled into a cell a little way on from Kari. Danny Brown, Davis's erstwhile co-pilot, was hanging from the ceiling by a pair of manacles. Despite their situation, the man looked extraordinarily calm.

"So. How're you?"

"Oh, you know, upside down, chained by my ankles. This is just a Friday night for me."

"Really." TK said flatly.

"Oh yeah – theres this great little place in Rosa City…"

"I really don't want to know, Danny. Any idea where Thompson and Doctor Cole are?"

"I'm guessing they're in the next cell along."

"Why do you say that?"

"…Because there are only four cells, you dumbass."

"I know that, dilweed… but they might be…"

"No. Sanchez wants to make use all suffer. He would kill us yet. He'd start with Davis."

TK looked at his feet.

"He's already broken Davis."

Danny's head swivelled to look at him.

"What the hell are you talking about?"

"He used Psychological techniques on him. He's been using a sound deck to replicate the sounds of a burning village."

"Shit. That'll take Davis pretty far down… but it wont break him."

"It already has!"

"Nope. Do you really think Davis would give up the fight on his inner demons? He may be fighting a rearguard at the moment, but he's still fighting."

TK kept silent. He knew which story he believed, and unfortunately it wasn't the one of the man dangling from the ceiling. Davis was like a brother to him, but he knew that the other man couldn't take the mental bombardment he was receiving, despite Danny's belief in him. They were on their own now.

=============================================================

(a/n)

Before anyone thinks of sending any complaints about this chapter, I'd remind you that its an R. I've warned several times that there would be parts of this fic that would be hard to read. Trust me when I say that they were hard to write.

I know, I'd like to think that this is an intense chapter, and that all of the scenes made you sympathetic towards the characters, or at least think about them. If it hasn't, I'll have to try harder next chapter, and trust me, next chapter wont be getting any lighter.

Believe me – there is nothing you can say about this chapter that I haven't already said to myself. Heh, as Bodrj if you want; he's the one who had to listen to my soul-searching over it.

Next chapter might take a while. I've got a load of content to do for Otak-UK ! Go visit)

The review system on this place is fine, but if you really want to discuss this chapter with me, go to my forum – , or it can be reached through me website at I'll try and answer any questions you may have.

-Ben.


	17. Chapter 17

Chapter 17

Davis's screams echoed through the caverns of his mind, joining those of the long dead villagers in a harmony of pain and suffering, the flames licked at his skin, and he flinched away from them, curling into a foetal position and tucking his head down between his knees.

"pleasedontkillmepleasedontkillmepleasedontkillme…"

The litany escaped from his lips, unbeknownst to him. He could no longer see the dank cell, all he could see was then darkness, all he could hear was the screams, all he could feel was the flames.

"pleasedontkillmepleasedontkillmepleasedontkillme…"

Tears flooded from his eyes, but he didn't dare look up, for fear of being burnt by those dreadful flames.

And in the observation room, Sanchez smiled at the image on his screen.

"Go and check on Motomiya." Santiago said without turning, unbuttoning his shirt.

The man looked disappointed. Santiago glanced at him.

"Don't worry, you'll get your turn. I just like some privacy while I work. Take your time."

The guard grinned, and headed out of the door. Instead of going to Davis's cell, first he headed up to the recreation room on the ground floor of the building to get a drink.

Santiago ran a strangely gentle hand along Jenny's face, grinning slightly.

"Heh. I knew, the moment I saw you, that you were gonna end up like this."

"That's okay. I knew from the moment I saw you that you didn't have any balls."

Santiago's grin extended, and he drew his hand away. That reprieve only lasted for a couple of seconds, however, before his hand snapped forward, slamming Jenny clean across the face. The Nurses head snapped away, and she felt the salty hot taste of blood in her mouth, and spat. She struggled as he came towards her, desperately trying to escape the chains that bound her to the table. But as he climbed up onto the table, her screams echoed throughout the dungeon.

In the next cell, Danny heard the screams. The chains hanging him from the ceiling by his ankles swung wildly as he suddenly began struggling. TK strained against his chains.

"Danny, stop it! You'll hurt yourself, man!"

Danny didn't seem to hear him. The chains clanged as the co-pilot slammed against the wall, desperately trying to dislodge himself from the roof, and go to the aid of the girl he loved. His head grated against the wall, smacking against the hard surface, and he felt a cut open. The screams from next door continued as tears stung his eyes.

TK slumped against the wall, and looked around. There was nothing he could use to snap the locks open, or even a loose rock he could use to pound on the damn things until they broke. He felt frustration like never before – especially that, since they didn't have Davis's help, unless they could bust out, Kari would be next.

The blonde digidestined had only once told Kari how he felt about her. It had been in their first year of college, doing their journalism degrees, and he had blurted out his feelings for her after a couple of beers in the student bar. A stupid way to tell someone you love them, but hey, who was going to criticise?

He began looking at his chains once more, desperately trying to find some way to open them before it was too late.

The screams echoed around in his mind, as Davis sank further and further into the pit of hatred he had dug himself with his own cowardice. The flames burned high around him, scorching what remained of his humanity as he shrank into the corners to try and escape their terrible heat.

"I don't want to die…" he repeated, over and over, trying to convince himself that he didn't deserve every single bit of this punishment.

"Please don't kill me…"

"I'm not going to kill you." Whispered a small voice at the back of his mind.

"Please…"

"I'm not going to kill you, Motomiya-sempai."

He closed his eyes. The screams rose to a maddening cacophony around him, but he no longer paid them any heed. He stared at the girl sitting cross-legged on the ground in front of him, her long black hair trailing down her back. She bowed formally to him.

"Motomiya-sempai."

He bowed back.

"First things, Motomiya-sempai, you're not insane. They're trying to break your mind, but you can't let them. Jenny-dono needs your help."

"I cant do anything."

That's wrong, and you know it." She shrugged. "The scream you hear are nothing more than sounds played to you by the bad man. Don't give in to it, its just noise."

He stopped and looked around. Gradually, the sound of the screams was changing. Not fading in volume, but no longer sounding like the screams of dying human beings. Instead, the tinny feedback of speakers overlaid them slightly.

All except one.

"That's Jenny-dono. You need to help her."

"I still don't know what to do."

"You're brave. You'll figure it out." She winked at him. "Now, go, Motomiya-sempai, before you make me angry."

He grinned at her.

"We wouldn't want that, would we Xiu Mei?"

She smiled, and disappeared. Davis looked down at where he was bound into the wall, and felt a surge of adrenalin rush through his body. He pulled, and the muscles strained in his arms, levering the manacle away from the wall to reveal a long metal nail. A feral grin crept across his face. The sound of footsteps in the corridor outside made his head snap up, and he quickly resumed his slumped position on the floor.

The door opened, to reveal the guard who had escorted Santiago earlier. The man came over, and poked Davis in the ribs with his boot.

"Heh, still insane, mental-boy? Pity. Wouldn't mind a struggle since the boss chucked me out of helping with the girls…"

A hand lashed out, and suddenly the guard found himself gripped hard around the throat.

"Strange. You don't seem to be doing much struggling, asshole."

In fact, the guard wasn't doing much of anything, except gargling slightly from the hole left by the long nail in the side of his throat. His eyes widened as he fell to the floor, staring off into space. Davis crouched over the man, pulling the loop of keys from his belt. Unfastening the manacles, he detached the length of metal chain from the two cuffs, and held it testing, it for weight.

He headed for the cell door.

Out in the corridor, he listened. The corridor was quite now, but one small sound caught at his ear, the sound of muted sobbing come from the room next to his. Moving next to the door, pressed his ear to the wooden surface.

It was definitely the sound of a girl crying.

He could have used the Keys in his pocket. His didn't. instead, he drew back his boot, and kicked the door down.

Santiago look up. he was sprawled across Jenny's slender frame, and with the light behind Davis, he couldn't see who it was.

"I thought I told you not…"

"No. you told him."

The Big man scrambled up, pulling up his pants. Jenny, still sobbing, desperately struggled to try and free herself, to cover herself up. she didn't want to be seen like this. Santiago backed off, his hands raised.

"Motomiya! How did you…"

"Not your concern anymore."

"look, man, I wont do anything, just let me go…"

Davis glanced at Jenny, and picked up a dirty cloth from the ground. Gently he laid it across her body, as she still refused to open her eyes. Slowly, the once gentle digidestined turned back to look at the big man standing in the corner, and when he did, the blood drained from Santiago's face.

"Kari." Davis said quietly. "You okay?"

"Yeah… is Jenny…"

"She'll live. _He_ wont."

Santiago chose that moment to try and escape, to try and batter his way past Davis to Freedom.

Davis was faster. His fist lashed out, crashing into the big man's side. Santiago felt a crunching sensation, and realised that his rib was broken. In the light from the corridor, he could see the metal chain wrapped around Davis's fist. The pilot hefted the chain again, and slammed his fist across Santiago's face. The man fell to his knees, and Davis stepped behind him, coolly stretching the chain between his hands. He pulled the chain up under Santiago's chin, and the big man began struggling, but when the pilot snapped the chain taut, pulling it harder and harder, the struggles gradually ceased.

"You're never gonna fuck with my friends again, asshole." He told the corpse, releasing the chain. He pulled the keys from his pocket, and headed over to Kari. He gently unlocked her bonds, and she stepped down from the wall. Without even saying a word, she threw her arms around him.

"I thought I was never going to see you again."

"I thought the same thing. Can you give me a hand with Jenny?"

She nodded, and Davis, not for the first time in his life, thanked the maker of the universe for surrounding him with people who kept their heads under pressure. Together, the unlocked Jenny from the table, and helped her down to the floor. The nurse was still sobbing, and Kari looked up at her friend.

"Go get the rest of the guys."

He didn't argue. He just went. Kari wished he had argued. It might have proven to her that he was still human.

The Keys jangled in the lock, and TK looked up as the door began to open.

"Hey, Danny, looks like its our turn."

"Bout time. I was getting bored here."

The door swung fully open, and Davis stepped in.

"Sorry to disappoint, but you're not my type."

TK's jaw dropped.

"You took your time." Danny said.

"Lack of opportunity. Why are you still hanging up there, Danny?"

"Its fun. I'm enjoying it."

"The chains here aren't all that well fixed into the walls, y'know."

"Oh?" Danny directed a look at the Chain in Davis's hands.

"Precisely. Lets get you down from there."

The moved back out into the corridor, and found Jenny and Kari waiting. The young doctor was clothed again, but her eyes seemed glazed over, staring off into the distance. Davis gave her a cursory glance, and motioned for Danny to join her. The co-pilot placed his hand on her arm, and his eyes were sad as she flinched, and almost pulled away.

Davis unlocked the final cell, and released Doctor Cole and Joe Thompson.

"You took your damn time." Was the engineers only words. Graham just glanced at Davis, and went to his daughters side.

"Davis, we need to get Patomon and Gatomon." Kari said.

He nodded, and headed for the stairs. Thompson vanished quickly into Davis's former cell and emerged carrying the guards SMG.

"where were your rooms?" Davis asked Kari.

"Just down the hallway there."

"Go get your Digimon. Me and Joe'll keep watch."

Kari nodded, and went to her room.

"Give me the Uzi, Joe."

"Nope."

"I wasn't asking."

"I know. And I'm still not giving you a loaded weapon with the mood you're in. pipe down, Davis."

"That's probably a good idea." Sanchez said softly.

The pair spun, and Joe levelled the Uzi at the drugs baron.

Sanchez's gun pointed right back – at Davis.

(a/n)

Okay, here comes the standard rant for the end of all my chapters. Or, alternatively, if you're reading this on the updates page of my site, this is an explanation of all that's been happening, concerning my fic and my life in general.

First of all, I'd like to apologise that this is so late – but for once, I do have a good reason! The thing is, I'm no longer posting from my home town of Gillingham, oh no. Basically, I've moved 200-odd miles up to Liverpool to go to university, which means I've been pretty busy for the past couple of months.

The other reason that this is so late is that I really don't enjoy writing this fic any more. When it was still my usual, lighthearted stuff, it was fine, but since I've moved into this really dark territory, I've been enjoying it less and less. Fortunately for me, it will be ending in the next few chapters, so it's all going away then. At that point I'll be going back to writing "Born To Run" and "Digi til I die." I'm sure that you've noticed a distinct lack of quality in these last two chapters. I've been trying, I really have, but I just haven't been able to get a grip on the same enthusiasm that I started this fic with. I started with the intention of writing a more mature piece, and I'd like to think I've achieved that. But Maturity doesn't necessarily mean I have to have a scene of rape – or even implied rape – in the chapter. I didn't enjoy writing it, and if you review, give me your honest opinion on whether you enjoyed reading it.

I will be pressing on to the end of this fic, but I doubt I'll be writing anything like it again. There have been many times when I considered giving up on this fic completely, because its taken me to places I really don't want to go. Writing a fic that includes a rape doesn't make you mature, it doesn't make you smart or progressive, and with me it makes me someone who pretty much decided on this path to shock my readers. I was trying to prove to myself that I could go that far with my writing. I've done it now, and I don't want to do it again.

But, like I said, this fic will be ending very soon, thankfully, and I can move on to greener pastures. Right now, these past two chapters have taken a lot out of me, so I'm gonna go and write something more fun.

Thanks for reading.

Ja ne!


	18. Chapter 18

Chapter 18.

"You know, you and your friends have caused me a lot of trouble, Mr Motomiya."

"Give me a couple minutes to pretend I give a shit."

Sanchez's reptilian eyes narrowed. Davis met them with a level stare. The statement hadn't been bravado. Something in the pilot had broken beyond all repair, and he honestly didn't care anymore. He fished the length of chain out of the pockets of his battered jeans.

"drop it." Sanchez said.

"Nope."

"I'll shoot."

"If that's the way its gotta be."

"I meant your friends."

Davis started to advance.

Sanchez started to move backwards.

Davis heard a noise behind him, and jumped. The Sudden movement caused Sanchez to fall backwards, the gun in his hand exploding as he fell. The digidestined span round, and saw Danny clutching his side.

"Bastard!" the Londoner yelled. There was blood coming between his fingers, but Jenny was already applying pressure to the wound. "Davis, don't just stand there, get the fucker!"

The pilot didn't need to be told twice. He turned, and ran down the corridor after the fleeing Sanchez.

Sanchez fired wildly back down the corridor, trying desperately to keep the inexorable force that was Davis away. It was pointless. The digidestined pilot stalked down the hallway with the inevitability of an iceberg, his fists clenched. Sanchez aimed and pulled the trigger.

A hollow click was his only response. Davis began to run as the drub baron reached for a magazine, inserting it into the weapon with practiced ease. He raised the gun again…

The chain in Davis's hand swung, catching Sanchez's fist. He yelled in pain, and dropped the gun. the drug baron slammed his foot upwards, catching Davis in the stomach, forcing the younger man back, and doubling him over. Davis stumbled forward, swinging his fist upwards, catching his opponent in the face. Sanchez's head snapped back, and suddenly, Davis had him by the throat.

"Well, you son of a bitch, this is it."

Despite the situation, Sanchez smiled.

"You stupid bastard, Motomiya. You really think this is over?"

"Since I've got you in a death grip, I reckon so."

"I may die, but I've got the pleasure of knowing I've fucked you over one last time."

Davis's eyes narrowed. Sanchez continued.

"You know that village where I picked up your reporter friends? well, the government believes the rebels took them, and they're convinced that village is their base, due to some… intelligence I let slip into their hands when you escaped. The bombers should have taken off by now."

Sanchez's smirk grew wider.

"Guess what brand of missile they're carrying? FlareStar Missiles. Paybacks a bitch, Motomiya."

Davis closed his eyes. The image of a child, her face burned beyond recognition, seared the inside of his eyelids. His fist tied around the chain. He knew precisely how to hit Sanchez in order to finish it. The uppercut began, and Sanchez's eyes widened as he saw the fist rising…

"No!"

Davis froze, his fist still held.

"Let him go, Davis."

"Why the fuck should I?"

"Because you haven't sunk to his level yet. You don't need his blood on your hands."

Davis dropped the front of Sanchez's shirt, and turned to look at Joe Thompson. The engineer was holding the Uzi loosely in his hands.

"I'm going to kill this fuck, Joe. He deserves every damn thing that happens to him."

"Yes, he does, but you're not gonna be the one to do it."

"IT'S MY RIGHT!"

"It is not your goddamn right. This ends now."

Davis looked away in disgust. And in that moment, everything changed. Sanchez tried to crawl away. Davis heard the movement, and turned back, his chain wrapped hand rising.

Thompson's hands snapped up, and a rattling sound broke the air in the corridor. A series of red dots appeared up Sanchez's back, gouts of blood spurted into the air, and Sanchez collapsed to the ground, still. Davis turned to stare at the engineer, his eyes wide.

Thompson shrugged, and ejected the magazine from the gun, before safing it and tossing it away.

"Lets get the hell out of here."

Veemon had the lynx already warmed up by the time they reached it. Sanchez's men had vanished into the hills, in all likelihood to take up extremely peaceful pursuits.

"Guess they saw the way the wind was blowing." Veemon remarked as Davis pulled open the door.

"Guess so."

"What kept you."

"Had stuff to take care of. We don't have much time."

"I heard. The Bomber has been scrambled."

"Everyone get in, fast!" Davis yelled.

As everyone strapped themselves in, Davis pulled up on the collective. Danny winced next to him, his wounded arm giving him grief.

"What's the plan, Bro?" The co-pilot asked.

I'm gonna set you guys down in the village, and you get everyone as far away as possible – they'll trust you. I'm gonna try and fox the missiles in the air."

"The old rope-a-dope?"

"Yup."

There was something in Davis's voice, a steely undertone. Danny glanced at him, then turned back to the instrument panel.

"Veemon, talk to the bomber pilot, distract him. He won't veer off, but it should buy us some time."

Veemon nodded, and picked up the transmitter. Davis gunned the engine, heading towards the remote village.

"Rosastan Air-force bomber! This is Air Relief chopper one to Rosastan air-force bomber!"

"AR-1, this is SBU-1. you are on a secure channel. Please desist from transmitting."

"Negative on that, SBU-1! You have been deceived! The rebels were not, repeat NOT responsible for the Kidnap of Hikari Motomiya and Takeru Takaishi!"

"Not our problem AR-1."

"But you're gonna bomb an innocent village – there is no rebel presence there!"

"We have our mission, AR-1."

"Your mission is in violation of international law!"

Veemon was clutching at straws now.

"Please clarify, AR-1."

Veemon gave a sigh of relief. Davis speeded towards his target as Veemon began to bullshit at length. Kari watched the pair of them, with a growing feeling of trepidation. Davis was focussed on something else now, something far beyond her comprehension. As if he heard her thoughts, Davis turned and glanced at her, and offered her a grin. Kari blinked.

"Nearly there." The Pilot said. "We might just pull this crazy piece of shit off."

He came in low over the houses, and set down in the central square of the village.

"Go, now!"

Everyone piled out of the helicopter. Davis stepped down from the cockpit.

"Get everyone out of the village as soon as possible. TK!"

"Yeah?" The blonde digidestined replied.

Davis tossed him a couple of DVD-ROMs.

"What are these?"

"Evidence. Everything Sanchez has ever done, every trick he's pulled make sure it gets into the right sources, and here…" he tossed over a book. "That's my diary. If all else fails, get it published."

TK nodded, and extended his hand. Davis took a hold of the offered handshake, and pulled one of his oldest friends into a rough bearhug.

"Make sure you survive, TK. You've got a job to do, and people to take care of."

"I will man. You come back to us, you hear?"

Davis didn't reply. He turned to Jenny, and smiled at her. She gave him a wan smile back. Davis took her by the hand and led her over to Danny.

"You take care of him, okay? Make sure he doesn't get himself killed." He grinned slyly. "After all, he is in love with you."

Jenny's jaw dropped and she turned to Danny.

"Is this true? Why didn't you tell me?"

Danny glanced at his friend.

"Thankyou EVER so much, Davis."

"No probs. See ya on the flipside."

He turned to Graham Cole.

"Well doc. Its been a priveledge."

"It isn't over yet, lad. Go do your thing."

"That's the plan."

The pilot then walked over to Joe, and hugged his friend.

"Thanks, man."

"No big deal, bro. Go for it."

Veemon called down from the cockpit.

"Bomber 200 KM and closing!"

Davis nodded and turned to Kari. Slowly, he cupped her chin, leant down, and kissed her softly.

"I should have told you this a long time ago, Kari…"

"Don't."

"I've always loved you."

She smiled up at him.

"We'll talk about it when you get back."

He nodded.

"Damn straight we will."

He turned and got back into the lynx, cranking up the engine. The dust of the village square began to rise up, and everyone but Kari moved away. The reporter continued to stare at Davis as the chopper left the ground, and took its station above the village.

Then she turned away and looked at the others.

"Well, don't just stand there gawping! Lets get these people out of here!"

Davis glanced over at the empty co-pilots seat, and then back at Veemon.

"Hop on up, buddy. Get on the horn again. One last time."

Veemon nodded, and picked up the microphone.

"Well, SBU-1, are you sure we cant convince you to turn around."

"Negative on that, AR-1. We have our mission."

Veemon sighed. "Somehow I knew you'd say something like that. You realise we'll try and stop you?"

"Of course."

Veemon placed the Microphone back in its stand. He turned, and took one of the emergency flares from the rack on the hull.

"he's gonna be using passive scanning, right?"

"Yeah. FlareStars don't have any other guidance systems. Stupid build, really."

"Heh. Cant complain. Get us side on, I'm gonna boost our IR profile."

Davis's response was to twist the aircraft round, as Veemon opened the side door.

"Guess this is it."

"Guess so."

The ringing alarm of a lock-on tone rang through the cockpit. Davis caught his hand straying towards the countermeasures button, and snatched it back. He saw the missile detach, and sharply banked the aircraft.

"Showtime!"

Adrenaline coursed through his veins, a rush unparalleled by any previously felt. His entire life had been building towards this moment. He slammed the throttle forward, gunning away from the village. The repeated blips of the missile lock told him it was still working. He couldn't outpace the missile, and his only hope was to outrun its fuel pods.

"Veemon, Keep that flare high!"

"Got it!"

"Tell me when the missile is clear of the village!"

He dived, opening as much of the exhaust port to the missiles sensor as he could, and went low, over the trees. In the side mirror, he could see the fiery speck of the weapon tracking him. Its course adjusted to follow him.

"Ten seconds!"

He swerved to go around a high treetop, keeping himself low, heading for the mountains. Banking sharply. He brought the chopper's exhaust back into scope.

"Five seconds!"

He slammed the jink peddles, 'wobbling' the missile, trying to fool its sensors. Every instinct was at peak efficiency, every nerve-ending was energised.

"Its clear of the village! Its still tracking us!"

"How long to impact?"

"fifteen seconds. we cant outrun it."

"Never thought we would."

Davis spun the aircraft round to face the missile, and slumped back in his seat, the adrenaline rush coming to an abrupt ends. Veemon dropped the flare out of the door, and hopped up on the seat beside him, before leaping up to his shoulder.

"Well buddy. I guess we get to be heroes."

"I guess so."

The missile loomed, a huge fire-laden crossbow bolt rushing towards them. Time seemed to slow, an eternity before it hit. Davis's face broke into a huge smile, and he swore, just before he died, that he felt a small child's hand wrap around his.

"_Motomiya-sempai?"_

"_Yes, Xiu Mei?"_

"_Why did you do that?"_

"_Everything has a time and place. This was mine."_

"_Motomiya-Sempai?"_

"_Yeah?"_

"_Lets get Veemon, and lets go home."_

"_Okay."_

Kari screamed, as the missile impacted, and the helicopter exploded into a titanic fireball.

(A/N) bet you didn't see THAT ending comin' did ya? Heh, all of the thankyous are after the epilogue, as per.


	19. Epilogue

EPILOGUE.

"He knew, didn't he?" Kari said quietly. "He knew all the time that he wasn't coming back."

Jenny adjusted her handbag, and nodded, mutely. TK stared at the floor, whilst Danny leant against the wall, staring out of the window. All four were dressed in black.

"I think, some part of me knew it too. He never intended to tell me his feelings. He didn't want to put me in danger again."

"I didn't want to admit it to myself at the time." Danny said quietly. "But I knew there was a reason he was saying those things. Some part of me just pushed it into the back of my mind, and refused to listen. I should have stopped him."

"If we had," Kari said, "All those villagers would be dead. He knew precisely what he was doing."

"He always did." Said TK.

"You know what I think?" Jenny said. "I think that Davis never gave up. He didn't have it in him. He put everything on the line form one last time, one last gamble."

"And he lost." Said TK, quietly. But Kari was staring at Jenny.

"No…" said the nurse. "No, he won. Don't you see? He was trying to defeat his own demons. Those ones he'd bee carrying on his back since that time in China, whatever he said. He was trying to strike one last blow for what he believed in before he had to leave us. His gamble was that he could save us, not himself. That was what truly mattered to him."

She looked up at Kari.

"Davis's friends meant everything to him. They always have. First it was the digidestined, then it was his AR crew." She smiled slightly. "But there was always one person who meant more."

Danny turned to look at them.

"You know, Davis used to pray sometimes. I once asked him what he prayed for, and he just looked at me, and said 'Strength.'" He glanced out the window again. "I never really got it till now. Davis was strong, physically, so why was he praying for more strength? He was praying for the strength to protect people. He was praying for the strength to protect us. That mattered to him more than anything else."

TK walked Kari home after the funeral, his tie half undone, and his jacket over his shoulder.

As they got to the door, he took a package out from his pocket.

"Here. Davis wanted you to have this. It was inside his operations journal."

Kari took the padded envelope, and turned it over in her hands. She was dreading stepping through the door. Jun was inside at the moment, with Tai, and she didn't want to face her right now, although she knew she had to. She sighed.

"Thanks, TK."

"Hey, its what he wanted." TK shrugged. "Generally, he managed to do what he wanted one way or the other. I'll catch you later, Kari. I've got a meeting with a publisher."

"The Journal?"

"Yeah. They want me to write a preface. Cant think why."

"Because you're too dman talented for your own good?"

"Possibly. See ya later, kiddo."

"Bye, TK."

She watched him as he headed down the path. Slowly, she turned and opened the door.

"Hi guys."

Jun didn't say a word. She just stood up, walked straight over, and hugged Kari. The younger woman felt like bursting into tears then and there, but she couldn't, not yet.

"How was it?"

"It was a funeral. How is it supposed to be?"

Jun gave a slight smile. She hadn't gone to the funeral. She'd said her goodbyes already, and didn't want to be there to bury her brother. Her mother hadn't gone either. Kari couldn't blame them. No-one should have to bury their own child or brother. Jun glanced at the package in her hand.

"I'll let you read that on your own."

"Are you telepathic now Jun?"

"Only on days like this."

Kari smiled, and headed into her room. Closing the door behind her, she lay on the bed, and opened the package. The sheets of paper fell into her hand. She started to read.

_Dear Kari…_

I never knew I would have to write this letter. It's not something I ever planned on. Of course, I didn't think I'd ever see you again after I left Japan! So after we dropped you off back in Rosa city, I wrote this letter.

When I joined the AR, I was an idealistic rookie. Good behind the stick, but not so great at dealing with reality. When reality came crashing down around me in China, I didn't know how to deal with it, so I went insane. Veemon helped me through that, but I also knew that there was one person who I had to pull myself round for.

It was you, Kari. I know I never told you how I felt, but I could never have done anything that might have messed you around, and I couldn't forgive myself if I'd been the one to put you in danger because of some random drug baron or petty warlord who objected to what I did for a living.

If you're reading this, it's because I'm dead. I put this in the journal I would have given to TK, because I know that he'd make sure it got to you. In certain ways, he's very predictable like that.

If I'm dead, it's because I died for something I believe in, heart and soul. But I'd also have died to protect you. Maybe I did both. All I ever wanted to do was protect you, because for so, so long, you've meant so much to me. When it boils down to it, its three simple words.

I love you, Hikari Kamiya. I always have, ever since that first moment you stepped into my classroom and sat at the desk next to mine. I hope you felt something in return, but if you didn't, that's okay. I just needed you to know. You gave me the strength I always prayed for. You were a shining light in the darkness.

Everything in these few pages is my personal feelings. The priest I told you about told me I should put all my feelings down on paper, so I can look back at them. I don't need them anymore, so I leave them to you. That priests number is on the back of this sheet. Please call him and tell him what happened. Tell him that… whatever happens, I found peace in the end. And it was because of you.

With all my love, and all my heart,

Daisuke Motomiya.

Kari set the letter down, and cuffed ineffectually at her eyes with the back of her hand. The tears wouldn't stop, they stained the page.

"Thankyou, Davis. I love you."

Even though he couldn't hear the words, she said them. Even though he would never hold her, never be with her again, she told them to him. Through all her life, she would never again say anything so true. But it didn't matter any more. She picked up the rest of the sheets, and began to read.

_The End._


	20. Thankyous, and final authors notes

DRAGONFLIES IN THE MIST:

THANKYOU'S AND STUFF.

Firstly, I need to give a big thankyou to every single person who reviewed. You gave me the strength to finish this fic, and BOY did I need it.

Special thanks go TO Anthony, as usual, and Kaeera. But the biggest thanks of all have to go to my good friend Ryan, aka Bodrj. He checked through every chapter, usually before they were released, and kept me sane with his feedback and comments. Cheers mate. I reckon I owe you more than one beer for this one.

If anyone is wondering about where I get my information in relation to helicopters and technology, most of it is from the internet, but a big influence and source of information was the James Cobb novel "Choosers of the Slain." If you're into techno-thrillers, it's definitely worth a read.

I'm sorry to all my readers that this took so long. Its been long recorded that I didn't like this fic. And not in the way I pretend not to like "As Long As She's Happy." This story, through the last two or three chapters, held very little appeal to me, and it got to the point where I was having to force myself to sit down and write it. It was like that up until this very last chapter and epilogue. Once I decided on Davis's fate, it became much easier.

In reference to Davis's death, I decided on it for two reasons. The first was for the sake of drama, and indeed melodrama. The sacrifice Davis makes, whatever your opinion of him, is something I saw this incarnation of him doing. All the crap in the story aside, this is definitely an exploration of the darker side of Davis's personality. Just cos we don't see it to often, doesn't mean it ain't there, folks.

The second reason is for me, far more personal. I think that, in my own mind, I had to kill this story. I had to give it such a conclusive finish that it could never come back to haunt me. This is an area of my writing I don't want to visit again in digi-fiction. This incarnation of Davis has found peace, and in terms of this fic, so have I.

Thanks to all of you. It was a long, hard trip, and the destination wasn't that pleasant, but there's some brighter lights on the horizon.


End file.
